GERMANY  OF   TO-DAY 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 


BY 


GEORGE  STUART  FULLERTON,  PH.D.,  LL.D. 

Professor  of  Philosophy  in  Columbia  University,  New  York 

Honorary  Professor   in  the    University  of  Vienna 

First  American  Exchange  Professor  to  Austria 


INDIANAPOLIS 

THE   BOBBS-MERRILL   COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


COPYRIGHT  1915 
THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 


PRESS    OF 

BRAUNWORTH    &   CO. 

BOOKBINDERS    AND    PRINTERS 

BROOKLYN,    N.   Y. 


TO  THOSE  WHO  DESIRE 

A    MUTUAL    UNDERSTANDING 

AMONG  CIVILIZED  NATIONS 

AND  WHO  WORK  FOR 

THE  CAUSE  OF 
INTERNATIONAL  CONCILIATION 


324942 


PREFACE 

IN  this  little  volume  I  have  brought  together  a 
collection  of  facts  that  may  easily  be  veri- 
fied by  anyone  who  has  access  to  a  public  library. 
He  who  cares  to  do  so  may  wholly  overlook  any 
expressions  of  opinion  which  I  have  permitted 
myself,  and  may  confine  his  attention  exclusively 
to  the  facts  adduced.  They  have  been  sifted 
with  much  care  and  have  been  submitted  to  the 
criticism  of  experts.  I  believe  them  to  be  accu- 
rate. 

I  have  not  desired  simply  to  add  one  more  to 
the  many  excellent  works  which  give  to  Eng- 
lish readers  general  information  about  Germany. 
I  have  wished  to  present  in  brief  outline  a  sketch 
which  will  give  a  just  conception  of  the  political 
and  social  constitution  of  the  German  nation 
and  of  the  spirit  with  which  it  is  penetrated. 
Owing  to  various  reasons  there  is  much  miscon- 
ception in  this  field  among  my  countrymen. 


PREFACE 

United  Germany  is  a  young  and  vigorous 
nation.  So  is  the  United  States  of  America. 
The  better  the  two  understand  one  another,  the 
better  for  both.  The  more  profitable  will  be 
their  mutual  relations  in  the  time  to  come. 

It  is  just  that  I  should  say  that  any  sympathy 
which  I  feel  for  Germany  has  no  other  source 
than  an  intimate  acquaintance  extending  over 
many  years.  I  have  no  German  blood  in  my 
veins.  My  family  has  been  American  as  long  as 
there  has  been  an  American  nation. 

May  my  little  book  be  of  service  to  Americans. 
GEORGE  STUART  FULLERTON. 

MUNICH,  June,  1915. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I   THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  GERMANY         .      i 

II   THE  RIGHTS  OF    THE  PEOPLE   IN  GER- 
MANY        ...        .        .        .        25 

III  THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  PEOPLE  IN  GER- 

MANY   .     §? 60 

IV  THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  AND  MILITARISM    83 
V  THE   PROFIT   AND   Loss  OF  MILITARISM  106 

VI    IMPERIALISM 133 

VII   THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NATIONS        .        .156 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  GERMANY 

GERMANY  is  as  much  a  nation  as  is  the 
United  States  of  America.  We  must  not 
allow  ourselves  to  be  misled  by  the  associations 
of  the  word  "Empire. "  The  German  Empire  is 
a  constitutional  confederation  of  states  inhabited 
by  a  homogeneous  people,  having  the  same  blood, 
the  same  speech  and  much  the  same  traditions. 
The  Germans  had  a  long  experience  of  the  dis- 
advantages of  disunion,  and  they  have  acute  mem- 
ories of  bitter  humiliations  suffered  when  Ger- 
many was  disunited  and  weak.  They  have  now 
had  an  experience  of  more  than  forty  years 
showing  them  the  advantages  of  union,  and  all 
the  states  appreciate  those  advantages  to  the 
full. 

I 


OF  TO-DAY 


THE  UNIFICATION  OF  THE  NATION 

It  is  now  natural  for  us  to  think  of  our  states 
as  united  in  a  confederation,  but  it  is  not  so  easy 
for  us  to  think  of  kingdoms  and  principalities, 
whose  kings  and  princes  are  by  some  conscien- 
tiously believed  to  hold  their  places  by  divine 
right,  as  giving  up  some  of  their  rights  as  states 
to  a  federal  government. 

To  comprehend  the  situation  more  sympatheti- 
cally, we  must  go  back  to  an  earlier  time  in  our 
own  history.  The  old  quarrel  touching  states- 
rights  and  federal  control  has  been  for  us  settled. 
We  are  a  nation,  and  the  states,  although  sover- 
eign within  certain  limits,  have  finally  renounced 
that  complete  sovereignty  which  would  make  a 
true  union  impossible.  Once  the  American 
would  have  found  it  hard  to  understand  what 
he  now  takes  as  a  matter  of  course.  Our  Civil 
War  was  the  great  climax  which  finally  made  of 
us  a  nation. 

The  United  States  of  Germany  have  developed 
a  national  consciousness  in  much  the  same  way 
as  the  United  States  of  America.  The  develop- 

2 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

ment  has,  however,  been  a  more  rapid  one.  It 
has  become  natural  for  Germans  in  all  the  states 
to  think  of  themselves  as  Germans  as  we  think 
of  ourselves  as  Americans. 

The  rapidity  of  this  development  has  been 
partly  due  to  pressure  from  without.  Had  our 
United  States  been  surrounded  by  powerful  and 
jealous  neighbors,  they  would  have  been  com- 
pelled to  attain  to  a  closer  union  of  feeling  at  an 
earlier  period.  Germany  has  been  in  such  a 
position,  and  Germans  have  been  compelled  to 
lean  upon  Germans  and  to  create  for  themselves 
a  strong  central  government. 

I  have  seen  this  unification  of  the  Germans 
going  on  for  thirty  years.  Those  who  do  not 
know  Germany  well  may  be  misled  by  superficial 
differences.  Those  who  really  know  the  country 
have  been  aware  for  years  that  Bavaria  would  no 
more  think  of  breaking  away  from  Prussia  than 
Massachusetts  would  from  New  York.  When  it 
is  suggested  by  men  belonging  to  other  nations, 
that  a  division  of  the  German  confederation 
would  be  desirable,  and  that  the  smaller  states 
should  be  liberated  from  what  is  called  the  "Prus- 

3 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

sian  yoke,"  Germans  who  hear  such  suggestions 
feel  very  much  as  we  Americans  should  feel  if 
outsiders  talked  of  the  desirability  of  the  seces- 
sion of  some  of  the  states  within  our  Union. 
The  United  States  of  Germany  have  the  same 
will  to  be  one  as  the  United  States  of  America. 

Even  in  the  imperial  province  of  Alsace-Lor- 
raine, so  lately  added  to  the  German  states,  there 
has  evinced  itself  in  recent  years  rather  a  sur- 
prising sentiment  in  favor  of  the  Empire.  We 
must  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  misled  by  the 
outburst  of  popular  feeling  which  has  sometimes 
shown  itself  against  the  army,  or  rather  against 
certain  officers.  Alsace  and  Lorraine  are  not 
yet  German  in  feeling  to  the  same  extent  as 
Bavaria  or  Wiirtemberg.  Nevertheless,  any  ill- 
will  which  may  be  found  against  things  German 
is  not  to  be  compared  with  the  ill-will  of  a  great 
part  of  Ireland  against  England.  The  fact  is 
surprising,  but  I  believe  it  to  be  a  fact. 

The  imperial  province  has  shared  in  the  eco- 
nomic advantages  of  a  union  with  the  Empire 
and  feels  that  it  has,  on  the  whole,  been  well 
governed.  In  my  opinion,  the  German  govern- 

4 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

ment  has  underrated  the  strength  of  the  bonds 
which  hold  the  province  to  the  Empire.  The 
towns  in  Alsace  and  Lorraine  elect  their  own 
mayors,  but  the  election  must  be  approved  by  the 
representative  of  the  imperial  government.  In 
recent  times  a  number  of  those  elected  have  not 
been  approved  by  the  imperial  government,  as 
they  were  suspected  of  being  not  sufficiently  pro- 
German  in  feeling.  Nevertheless,  at  the  out- 
break of  the  war  of  1914  some  of  these  very  men 
were  among  the  first  to  volunteer  as  soldiers  in 
the  defense  of  the  Empire. 

There  has  just  come  into  my  hands  at  this 
writing  a  copy  of  the  radical-socialistic  news- 
paper of  Miilhausen,  the  official  organ  of  its 
party.  I  notice  that  the  radical-socialistic  deputy 
to  the  Reichstag  from  Alsace  vigorously  main- 
tains that  a  separation  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine 
from  Germany  would  lead  to  industrial  disaster 
there  and  to  an  injury  to  the  working  man. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  smaller  German 
states  should  hold  with  enthusiasm  to  the  Ger- 
man confederation.  Alone,  'they  were  of  no 
significance,  and  were  at  great  economic  disad- 

5 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

vantage.  United,  they  are  constituent  parts  of 
a  great  nation  and  enjoy  very  great  economic 
advantages. 

In  this  connection,  let  me  quote  the  words  of 
Dr.  Herbert  Adams  Gibbons,  the  correspondent 
of  the  Philadelphia  Evening "  Telegraph,  who 
visited  Germany  at  the  end  of  1914  to  see  for 
himself  the  actual  conditions  which  prevailed 
there.  He  indicates,  in  his  letter  from  Munich, 
that  his  sympathies  and  prejudices  do  not  in- 
cline him  to  the  German  point  of  view.  Never- 
theless, in  speaking  of  the  smaller  states,  he 
writes:  "As  in  Wurtemberg,  so  in  Bavaria. 
Under  Prussian  hegemony,  these  people  have 
known  uninterrupted  and  unbounded  prosperity. 
Aladdin's  lamp  has  been  before  them  for  the 
rubbing  during  this  past  generation.  They  have 
had  their  outlet  to  the  sea.  They  have  enjoyed 
the  benefit  of  the  prestige  and  power  of  united 
Germany.  Will  they  ever  be  content  to  go  back 
again  to  the  regime  of  the  small  inland  kingdom? 
The  Bavarians  realize  now,  more  than  ever  since 
the  war  started,  the  intention  of  the  enemies  of 
Germany  and  they  feel  that  this  struggle  is  far 

6 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

more  a  matter  of  life  and  death  to  them  than  to 
the  Prussians,  who  have  a  sea-coast;  I  noticed 
this  in  their  newspapers." 

Every  foreign  war  is  apt  to  emphasize  unity 
among  a  people  and  leads  to  a  diminution  of 
internal  dissensions.  But  the  unparalleled  una- 
nimity with  which,  not  only  all  the  German 
states,  but  also  all  classes  of  the  populations 
within  the  states,  some  of  them  with  apparently 
irreconcilable  principles,  joined  in  the  great  war, 
must  have  impressed  everyone  who  was  an  im- 
partial spectator  of  the  occurrences  of  1914  and 
1915,  as  was  I.  A  very  strong  national  feeling 
was  evinced;  something  akin  to  what  we  look 
for  in  America.  Even  confessional  differences, 
proverbially  the  most  bitter,  were  wholly  dropped 
out  of  sight  for  the  time  being. 

To  be  sure,  one  hears  in  Munich  jests  at  the 
expense  of  the  Berliner,  and  in  North  Germany 
some  fun  is  made  of  the  Bavarian  or  the  Swabian. 
Such  banter  has,  in  my  opinion,  little  more  sig- 
nificance than  has  that  of  the  New  Yorker,  who 
complains  that  one  cannot  sleep  in  Philadelphia, 
because  of  the  noise  that  the  sun  makes  beating 

7 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

on  the  roof,  or  the  Philadelphian's  remark,  that 
he  found  nothing  new  in  Chicago  save  the  old 
families.  There  are  differences  between  North 
Germans  and  South,  but  they  are  not  greater 
than  the  differences  between  dwellers  in  New 
York  and  those  in  New  Orleans;  they  have  no 
political  significance.  The  German  nation  is  one, 
it  has  the  will  to  be  one,  and  there  is  no  reason 
to  think  that  it  will  again  be  divided. 

THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  STATES 

The  German  confederation  consists  of  twenty- 
two  states,  three  free  towns,  and  the  imperial 
territory  of  Alsace-Lorraine.  There  are  four 
kingdoms,  six  grand  duchies,  five  duchies  and 
seven  principalities.  The  old  Hanseatic  towns  of 
Hamburg,  Bremen  and  Liibeck  have  retained 
their  ancient  privileges,  and  they  entered  the 
union  upon  the  same  basis  as  the  states,  their 
respective  mayors  representing  them  where  the 
states  are  represented  by  their  princes.  These  free 
towns  are,  in  reality,  small  republics  and  enjoy 
a  thoroughly  republican  form  of  government. 
Alsace  and  Lorraine  were  added  to  Germany  in 

8 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

1871  and  stand  in  a  somewhat  different  relation 
to  the  Empire  than  do  the  other  states. 

THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

The  Federal  or  Imperial  Government  has  just 
such  rights  as  were  freely  granted  to  it  by  the 
states  which  entered  into  union  to  form  it.  Its 
powers  are  determined  by  the  purposes  it  was 
intended  to  serve.  The  analogy  between  the 
situation  in  Germany  and  in  our  own  country  is 
by  no  means  a  remote  one.  There  is  a  Federal 
Government  with  its  two  chambers  and  a  Chief 
Executive,  and  there  are  the  Local  Governments 
which  it  represents  and  over  which  it  exercises 
a  limited  control. 

The  "Bundesrat,"  or  Federal  Council  of  the 
Empire  which  corresponds  somewhat  to  our 
Senate,  represents  the  governments  of  the  several 
states.  The  more  important  states  have  a  larger 
representation  than  the  smaller,  but  one  by  no 
means  proportional  to  their  population.  Thus, 
Prussia  has  in  the  "Bundesrat"  only  seventeen 
votes  out  of  fifty-eight.  This  is,  to  be  sure,  no 

9 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

measure  of  the  influence  of  Prussia  in  the  confed- 
eration, for  not  only  does  Prussia  exercise  an  im- 
portant influence  upon  the  smaller  states,  but  her 
representation  in  the  "Bundesrat"  enjoys  a  certain 
limited  veto-right,  which  may  be  exercised  to 
prevent  innovations  in  legislation  touching  the 
army,  the  navy,  duties  and  excises.  The  notion 
of  especial  rights  and  "reserved"  rights  is  not 
foreign  to  the  German  confederation.  Thus, 
Prussia,  Bavaria  and  Saxony  enjoy,  to  a  limited 
degree,  the  former;  and  Bavaria  and  Wurtem- 
berg  the  latter. 

I  suppose  the  German  would  scarcely  be  in- 
clined to  call  the  "Bundesrat"  an  "upper  house." 
It  is  supposed  to  be  the  "bearer  of  the  sov- 
reignty"  vested  in  the  several  states.  And  yet, 
to  the  critical  eye  of  the  American,  its  functions 
seem  essentially  those  of  an  upper  house,  and 
it  cannot  legislate  for  the  confederation  without 
the  cooperation  of  the  lower  house.  For  this 
reason,  I  shall  speak  of  it  as  one  of  the  federal 
chambers. 

The  members  of  the  second  chamber,  the 
"Reichstag,"  which  corresponds  to  our  House  of 
10 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

Representatives,  are  elected  by  universal  man- 
hood suffrage.  With  us,  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States  naturally  becomes  a  citizen  of  any  one 
of  the  states  in  which  he  makes  his  domi- 
cile. The  reverse  is  the  case  in  Germany.  He 
who  is  the  citizen  of  any  state  in  the  German 
confederation  is  made  thereby  a  citizen  of  the 
Empire  and  may  vote  for  the  nation's  representa- 
tives in  the  "Reichstag."  The  vote  is  direct  and 
is  by  secret  ballot. 

The  importance  of  this  national  representation 
cannot  be  overestimated,  for  all  laws  for  the 
regulation  of  the  Empire  must,  in  order  to 
pass,  receive  the,  votes  of  an  absolute  major- 
ity both  of  the  "Bundesrat"  and  of  the  "Reichs- 
tag." 

The  Federal  Government  is  the  supreme  legis- 
lative authority  in  matters  regarding  the  army 
and  navy,  the  imperial  finances,  and  German 
commerce.  It  controls  the  posts  and  telegraphs 
except  within  two  of  the  states,  which  have  re- 
tained certain  rights  in  this  regard,  and  it  con- 
trols the  railways,  as  far  as  they  affect  the  na- 
tional defenses.  To  federal  legislation  the 

ii 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

individual  states  must  adjust  themselves  in  a 
multitude  of  provinces  affecting  the  rights  and 
interests  of  German  citizens.  Thus,  the  Fed- 
eral Government  legislates  touching  naturalisa- 
tion, domicile,  navigation  of  rivers  and  canals, 
banking,  patents  and  copyrights.  It  controls 
civil  and  criminal  legislation  and  the  rules  of 
judical  procedure.  The  colonies  of  the  Empire 
stand  under  its  authority. 

COMPARED  WITH   OUR  CONGRESS 

It  can  readily  be  seen  that  the  powers  of  the 
federal  chambers  in  Germany  are  rather  closely 
analogous  to  those  exercised  by  Congress  in  the 
United  States  of  America. 

Congress  can  lay  and  collect  taxes  and  duties, 
borrow  money  on  the  credit  of  the  United 
States,  regulate  foreign  and  internal  commerce, 
fix  the  conditions  of  naturalisation,  legislate  re- 
garding bankruptcy,  money,  weights  and  meas- 
ures, the  mails,  copyrights  and  patents.  It  can 
provide  for  lower  federal  courts,  declare  war, 
and  raise  and  support  an  army  and  navy.  More- 
over, it  has  organized  the  public  domain  into 

12 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY    •- 

territories  and  has  admitted  new  states  into  the 
Union,  as  it  has  deemed  fit.  The  much  discussed 
so-called  "elastic  clause"  of  the  constitution, 
enabling  Congress  to  make  all  laws  necessary 
for  carrying  into  execution  the  powers  vested 
by  the  constitution  in  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  or  in  any  department  or  officer 
of  the  government  has  enabled  Congress  to  pass 
measures  not  contemplated  when  the  constitution 
was  promulgated.  Such  measures  were  the  pur- 
chase of  Louisiana  and  Alaska  in  1803  and  1867, 
and  those  which  concern  the  dependencies  ac- 
quired by  the  United  States  in  quite  recent 
times. 

In  short,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  is 
the  supreme  legislative  body  of  a  nation,  and 
concerns  itself  with  what  regards  the  nation  as 
a  whole.  The  German  chambers  have  precisely 
the  same  task,  and  their  powers  are  determined 
by  the  end  held  in  view.  Both  federal  govern- 
ments represent  states  which  are,  within  certain 
limits,  independent,  and,  within  certain  limits, 
stand  under  a  higher  authority. 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

THE  PRESIDENT  AND  THE  EMPEROR 

There  is  one  striking  difference  between  the 
position  of  the  chief  executive  of  the  German 
nation  and  that  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States  of  America.  The  office  of  German  Em- 
peror is  hereditary  in  the  House  of  Hohenzollern, 
the  reigning  house  of  the  kingdom  of  Prussia. 
This  arrangement  was  effected  by  the  mutual 
agreement  among  the  states  which  formed  the 
Union  in  1871,  and  there  are  historical  reasons, 
apart  from  the  size  and  importance  of  Prussia 
as  a  state,  which  make  the  arrangement  not  un- 
natural. 

But  both  the  fact  that  the  chief  executive 
of  the  German  nation  is  an  emperor,  inheriting 
his  title,  and  the  fact  that  the  same  individual  is 
king  of  Prussia,  and  enjoys  in  that  capacity 
various  rights  which  have  nothing  to  do  with 
his  rights  and  duties  as  Emperor,  have  caused 
in  the  United  States  a  wide-spread  misconcep- 
tion, even  among  well-informed  people,  as  to 
the  imperial  office. 

The  truth  is  that  the  German  Emperor  is 
14 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

virtually  the  president  of  the  confederation  of 
the  German  States.  It  should  be  noticed  that  his 
official  title  is  "German  Emperor,"  not  "Em- 
peror of  Germany."  This  title  was  given  him 
to  emphasize  the  fact  that  he  is  first  among  the 
German  princes,  and1  that  his  position  is  not 
identical  with  that  of  the  German  emperor  of  an 
earlier  time.  The  states  do  not  belong  to  him ;  he 
belongs  to  them. 

His  powers  as  chief  executive  of  the  United 
States  of  Germany  are  analogous  to  those  exer- 
cised by  our  President.  Bills  passed  by  the 
chambers  must  be  signed  by  him  before  they 
become  law.  As  king  of  Prussia  he  can  exer- 
cise through  the  Prussian  representation  in  the 
"Bundesrat,"  the  limited  veto-right  upon  legis- 
lation referred  to  above.  Our  President  enjoys 
a  more  unrestricted  right  of  veto,  although 
measures  may  become  law  by  being  passed  by  a 
two-thirds  majority  of  our  Senate  and  House 
over  his  veto. 

The  Emperor  can  influence  legislation  in- 
directly by  recommendations.  So  can  our  Presi- 
dent. Here  the  advantage  lies,  rather,  in  my 

15 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

opinion,  with  our  President,  who  was  elected  by, 
and  presumably  has  the  support  of,  one  of  our 
large  political  parties,  and  who  is  not  hampered 
by  a  senate  whose  members  represent  states  which 
may  easily  be  made  sensitive  by  what  appears  to 
them  an  undue  increase  in  the  imperial  influence. 
If  the  Emperor  is  respected  and  liked — and  there 
can  be  no  question,  in  the  minds  of  those  who 
have  known  Germany  well  for  the  past  twenty- 
five  years,  that  the  present  Emperor  is  regarded 
in  all  parts  of  the  Empire  with  increasing  respect 
and  affection — his  indirect  influence  may  be  great. 
He  has  one  advantage  over  even  a  popular  presi- 
dent in  the  United  States;  his  term  of  office  is 
longer. 

The  Emperor  may  prorogue  the  "Reichstag" 
for  a  period  not  exceeding  thirty  days.  He  may, 
with  the  approval  of  the  "Bundesrat,"  dissolve 
it,  but  then  new  elections  must  be  ordered  within 
sixty  days  and  the  new  session  must  be  opened 
within  ninety  days.  Our  President  may  call 
special  sessions  of  Congress,  and,  in  case  the 
houses  disagree  with  respect  to  the  time  of  ad- 
journment, he  may  adjourn  them  to  such  time  as 
16 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

he  thinks  proper,  but  not  for  a  longer  time  than 
the  day  fixed  for  the  assembling  of  the  next  ses- 
sion of  Congress. 

The  Emperor  is  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Army  and  Navy;  so  is  our  President.  The  Em- 
peror may  declare  a  defensive  war,  but,  without 
the  assent  of  the  "Bundesrat,"  he  may  not  de- 
clare an  offensive  war.  The  funds  necessary  to 
carry  on  successfully  any  war  can  only  be  ob- 
tained by  vote  of  the  "Reichstag,"  or  lower 
house,  which  votes  the  budget.  In  the  making 
of  treaties  with  foreign  nations,  the  appoint- 
ment of  ambassadors,  etc.,  the  powers  of  the 
Emperor  exceed  those  of  the  President.  Like 
our  President,  the  Emperor  has  a  "cabinet/* 
theoretically  responsible  only  to  himself.  How- 
ever, in  actual  practise,  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Empire,  or  Prime  Minister,  retires,  if  he  cannot, 
in  the  long  run,  secure  the  cooperation  of  the 
parties  in  the  "Reichstag."  No  member  of  our 
cabinet  holds  his  office  under  this  tacit  under- 
standing. On  the  other  hand,  our  cabinet  is 
supposed  to  support  the  policy  of  the  President, 
which  is  supposed  to  be  in  harmony  with  that 

17 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

of  a  majority  of  our  citizens,  by  whose  votes 
the  President  was  elected.  Moreover,  the  mem- 
bers of  our  cabinet  hold  office  for  a  definite  term 
of  years  only,  and  those  who  are  discontented 
with  them  can  afford  to  wait  until  their  places 
are  vacated. 

FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GERMANY  AND 
IN  AMERICA 

It  is  clear  that  the  Federal  Government  of  the 
German  states  has  many  features  in  common 
with  our  own  Federal  Government.  There  is 
a  similar  emphasis  upon  the  distinction  between 
the  legislative  and  the  executive  authorities. 
The  governments  of  the  states  are  represented 
in  one  house,  and  the  people,  as  such,  in  the 
other.  The  Emperor,  notwithstanding  the  title 
he  bears  and  the  fact  that  his  office  devolves 
upon  him  by  heredity,  has  powers  and  duties 
which  may  well  be  compared  in  extent  and  nature 
to  those  of  our  Chief  Executive. 

It  is  of  no  little  importance  to  insist  upon  this, 
and  to  call  attention  to  the  actual  facts,  for  even 
the  thoughtful  among  us  are  more  or  less  in- 
18 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

fluenced  by  forms  of  expression.  To  every 
American  schoolboy  the  word  "Emperor"  sug- 
gests Augustus,  Tiberius,  Nero,  Charlemagne 
and  Napoleon.  It  does  not  suggest  the  perma- 
nent presidency  of  a  voluntary  confederation  of 
states,  several  of  them  republics,  which  have 
come  together  on  the  basis  of  a  constitution 
carefully  defining,  in  the  common  interest,  the 
rights  and  duties  of  those  who  govern  as  well  as 
of  those  who  are  governed.  It  would  be  unwise 
to  push  too  far  the  analogy  between  the  United 
States  of  America  and  the  United  States  of 
Germany,  but  it  is  wise  to  look  at  the  facts,  and 
to  avoid  the  tyranny  of  words.  Of  the  wisdom 
of  avoiding  the  tyranny  of  crude  mistranslations 
of  German  words,  I  need  hardly  speak,  for  I 
write  for  men  of  intelligence. 

THE  GERMAN  STATES 

The  analogy  between  the  constitutions  of  the 

individual    German    states   which    compose    the 

confederation  and  the  constitutions  of  our  own 

States  is  not  as  close  as  that  between  the  German 

19 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

Federal  Government  and  our  own.  The  Ger- 
man Federal  Government  is  something  relatively 
new.  It  was  freely  made.  It  did  not  grow  up 
as  the  result  of  a  development  extending  over 
centuries  and  exposed  to  a  multitude  of  histor- 
ical accidents,  although  its  fundamental  prin- 
ciples have  their  roots  in  the  past.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  states  which  combined  to  form  the 
Empire  were  not  new  communities,  but  had, 
either  as  units  or  in  their  constituent  parts,  long 
been  in  existence,  and  had  enjoyed  their  own 
traditions. 

When  they  came  together,  they  did  not  try 
to  remake  themselves  upon  a  common  pattern. 
Their  several  constitutions  are  determined  largely 
by  tradition  and  are  adjusted,  on  the  whole,  to 
the  habits  and  ways  of  thinking  of  the  people. 
I  have  said  that  kingdoms,  grand-duchies, 
duchies,  principalities  and  republics  have  entered 
into  the  union  on  relatively  equal  terms,  retain- 
ing their  local  governments  while  acquiring  fed- 
eral rights.  A  Bavarian,  taking  up  his  residence 
in  the  republic  of  Hamburg,  is  entitled  to  the 
suffrage,  and  may  help  in  the  election  of  his 
20 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

chosen  candidate  to  the  Reichstag;  a  native  of 
the  republic  of  Bremen  may,  under  similar  con- 
ditions, become  a  voter  in  Bavaria,  Saxony  or 
Prussia.  But  wherever  he  may  have  his  domi- 
cile, the  German  must  come  under  local  rules 
and  regulations. 

The  German  states  have  their  own  represen- 
tative assemblies.  The  six  larger  states  have  the 
two-chamber  system.  The  free  cities  have  their 
legislative  bodies.  There  is  much  difference  in 
the  composition  of  the  chambers  in  the  several 
states,  but,  in  general,  it  may  be  said,  that  the 
constitution  of  the  typical  German  state  is  less 
democratic  than  that  of  the  Empire.  Heredity, 
the  possession  of  land,  the  payment  of  taxes, 
even  eminence  in  science  or  literature,  may  give 
one  man  an  advantage  over  another  in  the  share 
which  he  has  in  the  government  of  his  fellows. 
Between  the  constitution  of  the  Free  State  of 
Hamburg  and  that  of  the  City  of  London  there 
is  a  striking  similarity. 

Here  I  may  remark  that  I  believe  that,  after 
the  close  of  the  present  war,  the  constitutions 
of  the  several  German  states  will  undergo  modi- 

21 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

fications  bringing  them  more  into  harmony  with 
the  democratic  elements  in  the  imperial  constitu- 
tion. Thus,  I  regard  it  as  not  improbable  that 
the  suffrage  in  the  individual  states  will  take  on 
somewhat  the  same  liberal  character  as  is  shown 
in  the  elections  for  the  "Reichstag."  The  loyalty 
of  the  people  of  Germany,  and  the  great  sacri- 
fices willingly  made  by  all  classes,  in  the  present 
crisis  in  the  life  of  the  nation,  would  thus  meet 
with  a  fitting  recompense. 

THE  GOVERNMENTS  OF  THE  STATES 

The  constitutions  of  the  several  states  have 
undergone  changes  in  the  past,  and  they  will 
certainly  undergo  changes  in  the  future.  Never- 
theless, there  has  been,  and  still  is,  much  con- 
servatism. This  should  not  surprise  the  Amer- 
ican, who  voluntarily  chooses  to  live  under  a 
federal  constitution  which,  for  a  century  and  a 
quarter,  has  undergone  practically  no  changes 
of  moment,  and  in  which  it  appears  to  be  ex- 
cessively difficult  to  introduce  changes.  When 
men  are  well  off,  they  fear  changes;  when  they 
are  miserable,  they  court  them.  Among  my 

22 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

personal  friends  I  count  men  of  education  and 
intelligence  who  belong  to  the  Social-Democratic 
party  and  who  stand  for  thorough-going  reforms. 
Nevertheless,  I  am  convinced  that,  were  they 
sure  that  the  sweeping  changes,  which  they  seem 
to  advocate,  might  be  made  at  once,  they  would 
oppose  their  introduction.  Their  inconsistency 
is  only  on  the  surface.  They  believe  in  reforms; 
they  do  not  want  revolution;  the  government 
under  which  they  live  is  a  very  tolerable  one  and 
they  know  that  they  could  easily  get  a  worse. 

The  general  principle  on  which  self-govern- 
ment in  Germany  is  based,  has  been  characterised 
in  a  standard  British  work  as:  "Government  by 
experts,  checked  by  lay  criticism  and  the  power 
of  the  purse,  and  effective  control  by  the  central 
authorities."  It  is  further  added:  "That  this 
system  works  without  friction  is  due  to  the  Ger- 
man habit  of  discipline;  that  it  is,  on  the  whole, 
singularly  effective,  is  a  result  of  the  peculiarly 
enlightened  and  progressive  views  of  the  German 
bureaucracy." 

It  would  be  a  waste  of  time  for  any  admirer 
of  Germany  to  try  to  prove  that  the  constitu- 
23 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

tions  of  the  German  states  are  like  those  of  the 
states  which  compose  our  Union.  It  would  be 
foolish  for  any  opponent  to  maintain,  that,  be- 
cause unlike  them,  they  are  intolerable  to  the 
populations  which  live  under  them.  Govern- 
ments have  their  histories.  The  test  of  a  govern- 
ment is  to  be  found  in  what  it  does,  and  may  in 
the  future  be  expected  to  do,  for  the  governed. 
If  its  workings  result  in  degradation  and  misery, 
in  the  reign  of  injustice  and  a  pervasive  feeling 
of  insecurity,  the  government  is  bad,  whatever 
its  form.  If  it  makes  for  enlightenment,  if  there 
is  a  general  confidence  in  the  administration  of 
justice  and  the  protection  of  the  rights  even  of 
the  weak,  if  the  mass  of  the  citizens  are  enabled 
to  live  happy  lives  and  to  develop  freely  their  in- 
tellectual and  moral  powers,  it  should  not  hastily 
be  condemned,  even  by  those  who,  by  education 
and  by  conviction,  are  led  to  prefer  some  other 
form  of  government. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  PEOPLE  IN  GERMANY 

THERE  is  rather  a  wide-spread  belief  in 
America,  that  the  Germans,  in  their 
own  home,  cannot  precisely  be  called  a  free 
people,  and  do  not  enjoy  those  rights  of  man 
to  which  every  American  thinks  he  has  a  claim. 
Now  and  then  men  of  an  oratorical  turn  de- 
scribe the  German  as  "groaning  under  the  yoke 
of  a  Prussian  militarism." 

To  be  sure,  those  of  us  who  travel  in  Germany 
see  great  apparent  content,  and  find  faces  less 
anxious  than  those  to  which  we  are  accustomed 
in  New  York.  Those  of  us  who  live  for  a  while 
in  Germany  and  come  into  close  contact  with 
Germans  discover  that  they  are  apt  to  regard 
with  affection  the  princes  of  their  several  states 
and  to  have  a  kindly  feeling  towards  their  pa- 
ternal government.  Nevertheless,  there  is  a  tra- 
25 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

dition  in  some  quarters  outside  of  Germany  that 
the  Germans  are  groaning  under  a  yoke  of  some 
kind,  and  dwellers  in  other  lands  have  even  gone 
so  far  as  to  suggest  that  it  would  be  an  act  of 
disinterested  benevolence  to  set  them  free  by 
force. 

That  all  Germans  are  contented  no  sensible 
man  would  maintain.  But  the  average  German 
does  not  appear  to  be  more  restlessly  discon- 
tented than  the  average  American,  who  is  usually 
agitating  for  reforms  of  some  sort,  and  the  mass 
of  the  workers  in  Germany  impress  one  as  dis- 
tinctly less  restless  and  discontented  than  the 
corresponding  classes  in  Great  Britain.  For  this 
the  elaborate  social  legislation  of  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century  is  in  large  measure  responsible. 

Certain  it  is  that,  notwithstanding  the  great 
yearly  increase  of  the  population,  an  increase 
approaching  a  million,  and  in  spite  of  the  problem 
of  providing  for  those  added  to  the  population 
in  a  territory  of  limited  size,  emigration  from 
Germany  has  fallen  off  extraordinarily.  This 
is  the  more  remarkable  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
the  population  is  intelligent,  well-informed  and 
26 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

energetic,  possesses  the  means  to  emigrate,  can 
very  easily  go  to  America  or  elsewhere,  and  has 
numerous  relatives  and  connections  across  the 
seas.  There  is  still  some  emigration,  of  course, 
but  the  mass  of  the  inhabitants,  whatever  they 
may  complain  of,  appear  to  find  life  best  worth 
living  at  home.  The  situation  is  very  different 
from  what  it  is  in  certain  other  countries  in 
Europe,  the  emigration  to  the  United  States 
from  Germany  having  been,  in  recent  years,  if 
the  sizes  of  the  populations  concerned  are  taken 
into  consideration,  scarcely  one-twentieth  of 
what  it  has  been  from  Ireland. 

There  are,  however,  certain  reasons  why  the 
American  might  easily  be  misled  into  forming  a 
somewhat  erroneous  opinion  of  the  rights  en- 
joyed by  the  German,  and  of  the  measure  of  his 
contentment  with  those  rights. 

There  are  differences  between  the  political 
rights  of  the  American  and  those  of  his  Teutonic 
neighbor.  The  principle  of  hereditary  right 
seems  strange  to  the  American,  and  it  is  foreign 
to  his  thought  that  men  should  be  appointed,  and 
not  elected,  to  membership  in  any  legislative 
27 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

body.  Furthermore,  the  elaborate  organization 
of  the  machinery  of  government,  which  obtains 
in  Germany,  and  which  results  in  an  admirable 
order  and  discipline,  keeps  a  man  mindful  of  the 
fact  that  he  is  governed.  This. is  distasteful  to 
the  American.  The  historical  reasons  for,  and 
the  practical  significance  of,  the  organization  of 
society  in  the  German  states,  do  not  at  once 
make  themselves  apparent  to  our  eyes.  To  do 
justice  to  them,  we  are  compelled  to  familiarize 
ourselves  with  a  rather  new  conception  of  rights 
and  duties. 

One  thing,  however,  the  American  will  learn, 
if  his  knowledge  becomes  more  than  superficial, 
and  that  is  that  no  man  is  more  conscious  than 
is  the  German  of  the  rights  which  he  actually 
has  under  the  law,  nor  is  any  man  more  ready 
to  have  recourse  to  the  law  to  protect  them.  In 
the  present  chapter  I  shall  deal  briefly  with  Ger- 
man rights. 

GERMAN  AND  AMERICAN  POLITICAL  RIGHTS 

It  is  palpable  that  the  political  rights  of  the 
Germans  are  not  identical  with  those  which  we 
28 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

Americans  enjoy.  When  our  states  came  into 
being,  their  inhabitants  found  themselves  con- 
fronted with  a  new  situation.  Old  things  had 
passed  away  and  they  had  a  clear  field  before 
them. 

They  had  been  accustomed  to  a  good  deal  of 
self-government  as  colonies,  they  were  relatively 
new  communities,  and  they  were  thrown  upon 
their  own  resources.  Several  states  found  them- 
selves with  very  similar  problems  upon  their 
hands,  and,  solving  them  in  a  somewhat  similar 
way,  they  attained  to  a  large  measure  of  uni- 
formity. To  the  federal  constitution  which  they 
adopted,  new  states  were  compelled  to  adjust 
themselves.  The  new  states,  moreover,  were 
peopled  largely  by  those  who  had  come  from  the 
older  states  and  who  brought  with  them  their  old 
traditions.  The  constitutions  of  our  states  are 
not  identical,  but  they  are  made  upon  the  same 
plan,  nevertheless.  They  are,  in  theory,  thor- 
oughly democratic. 

As  was  indicated  in  the  last  chapter,  the  con- 
ditions in  Germany  were  very  different  when 
the  German  Empire  came  into  being.  Vested 
29 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

rights  were  recognized;  old  traditions  were  re- 
spected. The  German  states  are  not  organized 
after  any  uniform  plan.  They  did  not  break 
with  the  past,  but  brought  with  them  into  the 
Union  what  they  already  possessed.  The  Em- 
pire is  in  certain  respects  extraordinarily  toler- 
ant. It  can  take  up  into  itself  states  which 
are  conservative  and  aristocratic  and  states 
which  enjoy  a  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment. 

We  have  seen  that  the  upper  federal  chamber 
represents  the  governments  of  the  several  states. 
If  these  states  are  liberal,  their  representatives 
will  be  liberal.  We  have  seen  that  the  lower 
chamber,  which  has  control  of  the  imperial 
finances,  is  elected  on  the  basis  of  universal  suf- 
frage, by  a  direct  and  secret  vote.  We  have 
also  seen  that  the  ministry  is  in  practice,  al- 
though not  in  theory,  responsible  to  this  cham- 
ber. 

Such  a  constitution  does  not  impress  one  as 
undemocratic,  and  it  puts  no  small  measure  of 
power  into  the  hands  of  the  people.  If  the  peo- 
ple split  into  parties  and  quarrel  with  each  other, 
30 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

instead  of  working  for  the  common  good,  the 
fault  is  their  own.  They  could  have  a  great 
influence  if  they  chose  to  exercise  it.  It  is 
worthy  of  remark,  that  the  present  "Reichstag" 
(in  1915),  out  of  a  total  membership  of  397, 
counts  no  Social-Democrats,  and  about  88  Lib- 
erals. The  "Center,"  or  Catholic  party,  has  some 
84  votes,  and  favors  social  legislation.  The  Con- 
servatives, taken  together,  count  less  votes  than 
any  of  the  other  parties  enumerated. 

The  political  rights  of  the  people  in  the  several 
states  vary  with  the  states.  I  suppose  no  one, 
calling  a  state  into  being  in  our  day,  and  in- 
fluenced by  traditions,  would  think  of  creating 
such  a  chamber  as  legislates  for  the  little  duchy 
of  Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.  The  constitution  of 
this  duchy  was  granted  in  1816  by  Charles 
Augustus,  the  enlightened  patron  of  Goethe,  and 
it  was  revised  in  1850  and  again  in  1906.  The 
diet  consists  of  one  chamber  with  thirty-eight 
members,  of  whom  five  are  chosen  by  owners  of 
land,  five  by  other  property  owners,  five  by  the 
University  of  Jena  and  other  public  bodies  and 
twenty-three  by  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants.  The 
31 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

chamber  votes  the  budget,  and  all  male  citizens 
over  twenty-one  years  of  age  are  entitled  to  vote. 

Such  a  constitution  is  a  heritage  from  the 
past,  and,  like  most  heritages  from  the  past, 
it  represents  actually  existent  interests  of  some 
sort  which  men  are  inclined'  to  acknowledge. 
Like  our  common  law,  it  is  not  the  creature  of 
pure  reason,  but  is  a  growth,  and  it  has  its  roots 
in  an  earlier  age.  Whether  it  will  work  satisfac- 
torily or  not,  will  depend  upon  the  degree  of  its 
adjustment  to  the  character  of  the  society  which 
lives  under  it,  and  to  the  habits  and  ways  of 
thinking  of  the  people.  The  American  needs  to 
remind  himself  in  judging  of  such  constitutions, 
that  the  German  people  are,  as  a  rule,  attached 
to  their  traditions,  and  have  a  feeling  of  affection 
for  their  princes,  by  whom  they  expect  to  be 
treated  with  consideration. 

Where  the  German  states  have  two  chambers, 
the  composition  of  the  upper  chamber  is  not,  ac- 
cording to  our  notions,  democratic.  Thus,  in 
Bavaria,  membership  in  the  upper  house  is 
determined  by  heredity,  by  the  incumbency  of 
certain  important  offices  in  the  state,  by  the  in- 
32 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

cumbency  of  certain  ecclesiastical  positions,  and 
by  royal  appointment.  Membership  in  the  lower 
house,  on  the  other  hand,  rests  upon  the  prin- 
ciple of  universal  suffrage.  The  houses  are 
called  together  every  two  years,  and  must  ap- 
prove the  budget.  No  laws  affecting  the  liberty 
or  property  of  citizens  can  be  passed  without 
their  consent. 

As  in  Bavaria,  so  in  Prussia,  the  membership 
of  the  upper  house  is  not  determined  by  the 
popular  vote.  That  of  the  lower  house  depends 
upon  universal  suffrage,  but  property  qualifica- 
tions here  play  a  significant  role.  The  consent 
of  the  King  and  of  both  chambers  must  be  ob- 
tained, before  a  measure  can  become  law.  The 
chambers  have  the  control  of  the  finances,  the 
lower  house  first  discussing  the  budget,  which 
can  be  accepted  or  rejected  by  the  upper  house 
only  as  a  whole. 

The  few  illustrations  which  I  have  given  will 
serve  to  make  clear  that  the  political  rights  of 
the  Germans  are  not  identical  with  ours.  It 
should  be  equally  clear,  however,  that  they  have 
very  significant  political  rights,  nevertheless. 
33 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

The  citizen  ultimately  controls  the  finances  both 
of  the  states  and  of  the  Empire,  and,  as  we  all 
know,  money  is  the  nerve  both  of  peace  and  of 
war. 

Changes  are  going  on  in  Germany,  and  the  in- 
fluence of  the  democratic  spirit  is  making  itself 
more  and  more  felt.  But  I  do  not  here  wish  to 
dwell  upon  this.  I  wish  rather  to  emphasize  the 
conservative,  the  traditional  and  the  aristocratic 
elements  in  the  German  constitutions,  in  order 
to  bring  out  a  very  curious  circumstance.  As 
I  have  come  to  understand  the  working  of  the 
German  governments,  the  matter  has  interested 
me  no  little,  and  I  think  it  well  worth  while  to 
call  it  to  the  attention  of  my  countrymen.  This 
subject  will  fill  the  rest  of  this  chapter. 

GOVERNMENT  FOR  THE  PEOPLE 

We  Americans  are  fond  of  maintaining  that 
a  government  should  be  of  the  people,  by  the  peo- 
ple, and  for  the  people.  Our  suffrage  gives  us, 
in  theory,  at  least,  a  government  of  the  people. 
Experience  has  taught  us  that  it  is  no  easy  mat- 
ter to  secure  a  government  by  such  of  the  people 
34 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

as  are  enlightened  and  disinterested,  and  to  that 
end  we  bend  our  efforts.  Upon  the  difficulties 
connected  with  securing  a  government  for  the 
people,  which  will  insure  a  measure  of  well  being 
to  all  classes,  and  will  prevent  the  rapacious 
from  robbing  their  neighbors,  I  need  scarcely 
dwell.  Under  many  forms  of  government  the 
rich  may  become  dangerously  rich  and  powerful, 
and  the  poor  may  be  sent  empty  away.  But,  as 
good  Americans,  our  hope  is  in  democracy  in 
general,  and,  more  specifically,  in  the  form  of 
democracy  which  we  ourselves  enjoy. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  say  a  word  against  the 
form  of  government  under  which  I  have  been 
brought  up,  which  I  revere,  and  the  disadvan- 
tages of  which  I  regard  as  extraneous  and  acci- 
dental rather  than  as  inherent  and  essential. 
Still,  I  recognize  that  a  nation  cannot  strip  off 
its  past  with  impunity,  any  more  than  a  man 
can,  with  right  and  impunity,  rid  himself  of  his 
family.  And  it  is  only  gradually  that  I  have  been 
brought  to  the  realization  that  a  government, 
which  the  average  American  would  not  be  in- 
clined to  describe  as  of  the  people  and  by  the 
35 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

people,  may,  nevertheless,  be  most  emphatically 
a  government  for  the  people ;  not  for  a  caste,  not 
for  a  class,  not  for  the  few,  but  for  the  people 
as  such,  including  the  poor,  the  weak,  the  in- 
articulate. Men  who  have  long  nursed  the 
popular  prejudice  against  the  traditional  mother- 
in-law  have  been  brought  to  confess  that,  in  in- 
dividual cases,  the  incumbent  of  the  office  in 
question  may  be  both  a  good  woman  and  pleas- 
ant to  live  with. 

Those  who  know  Germany  well  are  compelled 
to  admit  that  the  German  government  is  a  govern- 
ment for  the  people,  and  is  both  just  and  benevo- 
lent. I  may  mention  in  passing  that,  as  I  write 
these  lines,  in  Munich,  in  war  time,  the  bread 
which  I  eat  contains  a  certain  proportion  of 
wheat  flour  and  a  certain  proportion  of  rye.  The 
government  of  the  Empire  has  determined  to 
make  it  certain  that  all  classes  of  the  population 
shall  be  secured  from  hardship  until  the  next 
crops  are  harvested.  The  amount  of  bread 
which  I  may  buy  is  regulated  by  law,  as  is  the 
amount  of  flour.  I  submit  to  such  regulations, 
not  only  with  willingness,  but,  as  one  interested 

36 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

in  social  reform,  with  pride  and  pleasure.  The 
Emperor  is  eating  the  same  bread.  The  highest 
officials  in  Bavaria,  civil  and  military,  are  limited 
in  their  purchases  as  I  am;  I  am  allowed  just 
what  is  allowed  to  my  cook.  When  one  knows 
that  all  are  treated  alike,  small  privations  are  no 
longer  a  burden.  No  man  is  exploiting  me. 
Speculation  in  foodstuffs  is  repressed.  Any 
sacrifice  which  I  make  ceases  to  be  a  sacrifice, 
because  it  is  a  contribution  to  the  common  good. 
But  to  return  to  my  task,  which  I  must  here  ful- 
fill very  briefly. 

! 

THE  PEOPLE  AND  THE  COURTS  OF  JUSTICE 

I  suppose  that  one  of  the  best  indications  that  a 
given  government  is  carried  on  in  the  interests 
of  the  people  is  that  the  people  themselves  have 
an  unshaken  confidence  in  the  justice  of  the 
courts  to  which  they  may  appeal  in  defense  of 
their  rights.  It  is  an  indication  no  less  signifi- 
cant, when  access  to  the  courts  is  made  easy  to  all 
classes,  even  to  the  poorest.  The  Germans  go 
to  law  easily,  for  it  is  easy  to  go  to  law,  and 
the  expenses  are  relatively  slight.  The  lawyer 
37 


|!      GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

may  not  charge  an  arbitrary  fee,  for  the  law 
regulates  the  matter.  And  certain  classes  of 
persons  do  not  have  to  pay  any  fee  at  all. 

As  to  the  impartial  administration  of  justice, 
in  a  land  which  is  sometimes  described  as  bureau- 
cratic, it  is  worth  while  to  quote  the  opinion  of 
a  socialist  and  radical,  a  scholar  of  standing,  who 
has  himself,  in  doing  what  seemed  to  him  his 
duty  as  a  reformer,  come  into  conflict  with  the 
government.  A  few  years  ago  I  asked  him, 
having  a  particular  case  in  mind,  whether  a  state 
official  would  have  an  advantage  in  the  courts 
over  a  private  citizen,  when  both  were  parties 
to  a  suit.  He  answered  that,  especially  if  the 
official  appeared  as  plaintiff  or  defendant  in  his 
private  capacity,  it  was  hardly  conceivable  that 
he  should  have  any  advantage  whatever. 

It  is  my  observation  that  the  people,  from  the 
humblest  maid-servant  up,  have  confidence  in 
the  courts,  and  readily  carry  before  them  their 
real  or  fancied  grievances.  Sometimes  they  are 
fancied  grievances,  but  they  can,  at  least,  get  a 
hearing.  Poverty  need  not  prevent  a  servant 
from  bringing  suit  against  an  employer,  for  the 

38 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

servant  can  claim  "Armenrecht,"  that  is,  can 
have  the  case  conducted  without  expense  to  him- 
self. Had  I  a  suit  with  one  of  my  servants,  I 
should,  on  the  whole,  look  for  justice,  but  I 
should  expect  a  court,  if  there  were  any  "par- 
tiality," to  be  biassed  rather  on  the  side  of  the 
servant  than  on  mine.  The  "Existenz-Frage," 
as*  it  is  called,  the  problem  of  getting  a  living, 
looms  large  on  the  horizon  in  Germany,  and  oc- 
cupies the  public  attention.  It  is  this  that  has 
led  to  the  elaborate  system  of  social  legislation 
which  characterizes  the  nation. 

THE  RIGHT  TO  A  LIVING 

The  population  is  much  denser  in  Germany 
than  it  is  in  the  United  States.  As  a  rule,  men 
have  to  make  a  more  thorough  preparation,  and 
to  wait  longer,  before  they  get  the  "  start  in  life. 
Americans  are  impressed  by  the  large  numbers 
of  well  prepared  men,  who  are  waiting  for  posi- 
tions of  all  sorts,  in  many  of  which  the  remu- 
neration must  seem  to  any  American  surpris- 
ingly small.  This  is  true  not  merely  of  positions 
in  the  gift  of  the  government.  It  is  true  gener- 
39 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

ally.  The  situation  results,  to  be  sure,  in  the 
selection  of  thoroughly  prepared  men  to  fill  the 
positions  in  question ;  but  it  reveals  that  the  prob- 
lem of  earning  a  living  in  Germany,  as  elsewhere 
in  Europe,  is  a  serious  one.  It  must  be  solved, 
if  suffering  is  to  be  avoided,  by  deliberate 
thought  and  attention.  These  it  has  received. 

There  is  a  prevailing  sentiment  in  all  parts  oi 
Germany  that  men  should  not  lightly  or  suddenly 
be  deprived  of  their  means  of  a  livelihood.  Em- 
ployers, whether  the  state,  private  corporations, 
or  individuals,  have  laid  upon  their  shoulders 
responsibilities  for  their  employees  which  must 
seem,  to  those  unaccustomed  to  the  system,  bur- 
densome. There  is  a  strong  tendency  to  render 
all  sorts  of  positions  relatively  permanent,  and 
to  define  in  detail  the  rights  of  those  who  oc- 
cupy them.  For  the  vast  number  of  officials — the 
term  is  a  very  inclusive  one — in  the  service  of 
the  state,  or  in  that  of  the  communities  within 
the  state,  for  the  employees  of  rail-roads, 
street-car  lines,  etc.,  generally,  the  whole  matter 
has  been  worked  out  in  minute  detail.  Nor  have 
those  in  private  service  been  overlooked.  We 
40 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

Americans  are,  of  course,  not  unfamiliar  with 
somewhat  similar  legislation,  but  in  no  land  has 
it  reached  the  development  that  it  has  among  the 
Germans. 

Here  in  Bavaria,  for  example,  if  I  wish  to 
get  rid  of  a  servant,  I  must  give  her  notice  on 
or  before  the  fifteenth  of  the  month,  the  notice 
to  take  effect  on  the  first  of  the  month  following. 
I  must  allow  the  servant,  in  the  two  weeks  inter- 
vening, a  certain  number  of  outings  to  look  for 
another  place.  If  I  delay  my  notice  until  the 
sixteenth,  I  must  tolerate  the  unwelcome  do- 
mestic for  six  weeks  longer.  Should  I  prefer 
to  get  rid  of  her  at  any  price,  I  must  pay  her, 
not  merely  her  wages,  but  also  a  sum  to  cover 
her  board  and  lodging  up  to  the  legal  date. 
Such  legal  provisions  may  easily  be  an  annoy- 
ance to  the  employer.  It  is  not  all  employees 
who  seem  to  deserve  so  much  consideration. 
But  it  is  surely  better  that  the  well-to-do  should 
suffer  some  inconvenience  than  that  those  who 
have  their  daily  bread  to  earn  should  run  the 
risk  of  being  brought  to  distress.  The  relative 
stability  of  employment  in  Germany  everywhere 
41 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

impresses  the  American.  He  is  the  more  im- 
pressed, when  he  reflects  that  the  number  of 
those  seeking  positions  renders  it  by  no  means 
difficult  to  fill  vacant  places.  In  certain  higher 
positions,  as  in  the  public  libraries  and  about 
the  universities,  the  incumbent  of  an  office  can 
be  gotten  rid  of  only  by  process  of  law. 

The  organization  of  society  in  Germany  has 
resulted  in  an  enormous  extension  of  the  pen- 
sion system.  A  man  is  provided  for  in  his  old 
age,  and,  in  case  of  his  death,  his  family  receives 
assistance.  The  pension  system  may  become  a 
grave  abuse,  as  we  Americans  well  know.  But 
rightly  managed  it  may  be  an  inestimable  benefit. 

The  German  who  accepts  a  pension,  whether 
he  be  a  conductor  on  a  tram-line  or  a  university 
professor,  does  not  'feel  that  he  is  accepting 
charity.  The  pension  is  regarded  as  a  part  of 
the  remuneration  for  work  done,  and  the  benefit 
is  as  a  rule  the  greater  as  the  term  of  service  is 
longer.  Where  men  feel  secure  in  their  tenure 
of  office,  and  know  that  their  families  are  not 
threatened  with  disaster  in  case  of  their  death  or 
retirement  from  disability,  they  are  willing  to 
42 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

work  contentedly  on  a  moderate  income.  And 
it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  whole  system 
tends  to  encourage  honesty  and  faithfulness  in 
the  service  rendered.  The  average  of  honesty 
of  German  officials  of  all  classes,  many  of  whom 
draw  surprisingly  small  salaries,  is  exceedingly 
high. 

SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  FOR  WORKERS 
In  1883  the  Reichstag,  in  harmony  with  the 
policy  announced  by  the  Emperor  in  his  speech 
from  the  throne  in  1881,  enacted  a  law  making 
compulsory  upon  workers  in  industrial  pursuits 
insurance  against  sickness,  accident  and  incapac- 
ity. The  legislation  thus  initiated  has  been  ex- 
tended. At  present  there  is  in  the  German 
states  an  elaborate  system  of  insurance  against 
sickness,  old  age,  invalidity  and  accident.  Many 
classes  of  persons  are  thus  provided  for.  Among 
those  who  may  share,  for  example,  in  the  bene- 
fits of  the  laws  regarding  insurance  against  old 
age  and  invalidity,  enemies  which  threaten  us 
all,  are  domestic  servants,  artisans,  laundresses, 
seamstresses,  dressmakers,  housekeepers,  fore- 
43 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

men  and  journeymen.  The  same  right  is  enjoyed 
by  teachers  in  private  schools,  by  private  tutors, 
and  by  employees  in  mercantile  establishments, 
provided  their  yearly  earnings  fall  below  a  cer- 
tain fixed  sum.  In  the  case  of  the  last  class 
mentioned,  a  participation  in  the  benefits  of  the 
insurance  is  voluntary.  A  part  of  the  expense 
of  the  contribution  is  paid  by  the  employer, 
where  the  insurance  is  obligatory,  and  a  part  by 
the  employee.  At  any  rate  such  is  the  legal 
provision,  but,  especially  in  the  case  of  domestic 
servants,  etc.,  it  is  not  unusual  for  the  employer 
to  pay  the  whole.  On  him  devolves  the  duty  of 
seeing  to  it  that  the  provisions  of  the  law  are 
obeyed. 

It  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  there  are 
very  few  Germans,  indeed,  who  are  not  provided 
for  by  the  law,  in  some  way,  and  to  some  extent, 
if  they  become  incapable  of  self-support.  They 
may  receive  very  little,  and  it  may  be  eminently 
desirable  that  public  aid  should  be  supplemented 
by  private  charity.  But  they  are,  at  least,  saved 
from  falling  into  the  class  of  the  submerged. 
And  as  everyone  is  under  inspection,  and  should 
44 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

have  papers  of  some  sort,  it  is  possible  to  know 
something  about  the  cases  that  seem  to  need 
assistance.  The  laws  regarding  the  compulsory 
insurance  of  the  working  classes  have  done  much 
to  reduce  both  pauperism  and  crime.  Begging  is 
reduced  to  a  minimum  and  is  discouraged. 

To  be  sure,  it  is  easier  to  get  rid  of  a  beggar 
by  giving  him  a  little  money,  than  it  is  to  take 
the  time  and  trouble  to  look  into  his  claims  to 
assistance.  Germans  succumb  to  this  weakness, 
as  well  as  Americans,  and  it  encourages  im- 
postors. But  it  is  my  experience  that  Americans 
resident  in  Germany  suffer  most  from  what  the 
Germans  call  "consulate  swindlers,"  that  is,  from 
men  who  maintain  that  they  are  subjects  of  this 
or  that  foreign  nation,  are  temporarily  in  distress, 
and  have  a  claim  upon  the  sympathies  of  their 
alleged  countrymen.  Some  time  since,  as  I  was 
chatting  with  three  other  Americans,  I  happened 
to  touch  upon  a  case  which  had  moved  my  sym- 
pathies and  had  elicited  a  small  contribution.  I 
discovered  that  all  three  of  the  other  men  present 
had  been  taken  in  as  well  as  I.  One  had  given 
the  man  money  for  a  ticket  to  Nuremberg,  the 
45 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

second  had  paid  his  way  to  Innsbruck,  and  the 
third  had  helped  him  on  his  road  to  Stuttgart. 
As  "an  American  citizen  temporarily  in  distress," 
he  had  no  papers,  but  he  had  a  plausible  tongue 
and  a  sore  leg  which  he  exhibited  with  effect. 
Such  "Americans"  usually  speak  English  imper- 
fectly or  with  a  foreign  accent,  but  they  are  most 
insistent  in  their  claims.  In  Munich,  the  Ger- 
mans, who  put  every  class  under  inspection,  have 
appointed  an  official  with  the  title  "Police-officer 
for  Consulate-Swindlers."  To  this  official  I  had 
recourse,  after  endeavoring  to  look  personally 
into  the  last  three  cases  in  which  I  was  appealed 
to.  In  each  case  I  had  been  given  a  false  ad- 
dress. 

Germany  is  no  paradise  for  the  vagrant,  but 
the  poor  man  who  is  properly  accounted  for  is 
not  left  to  his  own  resources.  It  is  a  part  of  the 
aid  given  by  the  state  to  the  humbler  classes  that 
medical  advice  may  be  had  gratis  by  those  prop- 
erly insured.  And,  especially  in  recent  years,  an 
earnest  effort  has  been  made  to  guard  the  health 
and  comfort  of  the  workers  while  they  are  still 
able  to  work.  We  are  ourselves  familiar  with 
46 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

factory-inspection,  and  with  the  limitation  of  the 
hours  of  labor.  The  problem  of  rendering  the 
life  of  the  working  man  in  Germany  tolerable  to 
him,  and  not  unhygienic,  is  being  worked  out 
with  characteristic  thoroughness.  Everybody 
and  everything  appears  to  be  inspected  by  some 
official.  Those  of  us  who  do  not  come  under  the 
social  legislation  I  am  discussing  are  accustomed 
to  drive  ourselves  as  it  is  not  possible  for  an  em- 
ployer to  drive  his  employee.  This  seems  just. 
He  who  drives  himself  'does  it  for  his  own 
profit;  he  who  is  driven  by  another  is  making  a 
profit  for  someone  other  than  himself.  Against 
such  an  exploitation  of  man  by  his  fellowman 
the  German  law  enters  its  veto. 

THE  TAXATION  OF  THE  PEOPLE  IN  GERMANY 

The  little-appreciated  privilege  of  paying  taxes 
is  one  common  to  men  of  all  nations,  but  the 
principle  according  to  which  taxes  are  levied  is 
by  no  means  the  same  everywhere.  In  one  land 
the  taxes  bear  very  hard  upon  the  poor;  in 
another,  those  who  possess  little  are  treated  with 
indulgence. 

47 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

In  Germany  the  Federal  Government  derives 
its  income  partly  from  customs,  duties,  inherit- 
ance taxes,  profits  from  the  posts  and  telegraphs, 
etc.,  and  partly  from  contributions  levied  upon 
the  states  composing  the  Empire.  In  the  several 
states  the  principles  of  taxation  are  virtually  the 
same,  and  a  single  instance  will  serve  to  illustrate 
their  spirit.  I  choose  Bavaria,  because  that  king- 
dom has  recently  revised  its  system  of  taxation 
and  has  expressly  made  the  effort  to  profit  by 
the  experience  of  the  other  states. 

He  who  studies  the  Bavarian  tax-laws  is,  from 
beginning  to  end,  impressed  by  the  fact  that  it 
was  the  evident  intention  of  those  who  framed 
them  to  make  the  taxes  rest  lightly  upon  the  poor, 
and  to  lay  the  heaviest  part  of  the  burden  upon 
stronger  shoulders.  One  circumstance  may  seem 
to  contradict  this  conclusion.  Very  small  in- 
comes are  taxed,  and  classes  of  persons  who,  in 
our  country,  pay  no  tax  at  all  have  to  pay  some 
tax  in  Bavaria.  But  this  provision  was  delib- 
erately made  to  guard  the  self-respect  of  those 
of  small  means,  and  to  prevent  their  being  classed 
with  paupers,  bankrupts,  and  those  generally  who 

48 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

are  treated  as  though  they  owed  the  state  noth- 
ing. It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  party  which 
most  earnestly  insisted  upon  the  taxation  of  small 
incomes  was  that  of  the  Social-Democrats,  who, 
especially,  champion  the  cause  of  the  poor  man. 

The  Bavarian  system  of  taxation  rests  mainly 
upon  the  taxation  of  incomes.  Income  earned 
from  year  to  year  is  taxed  at  a  lower  rate  than 
income  from  investments,  which  is  decidedly  a 
favoring  of  the  non-capitalist  class.  And  the  tax 
on  incomes,  whether  from  earnings  or  from  in- 
vested money,  is  a  progressive  one.  In  turning 
over  the  little  volume  which  contains  the  tax  laws 
passed  for  the  kingdom  in  1910,  I  find  a  tariff  for 
the  computation  of  taxes  comprehending  two 
hundred  and  eleven  classes,  with  an  appendix 
giving  rules  to  cover,  by  a  further  progressive 
increase,  the  incomes  of  the  very  rich.  The  poor 
pay  a  tax  which  is  merely  nominal;  the  total  in- 
come tax,  including  state,  district  and  city  taxes, 
may  fall  within  seventy-five  cents.  There  are, 
moreover,  provisions  for  the  relief  of  those  who, 
although  not  very  poor,  seem  to  have  special 
claims  to  consideration.  Thus,  the  parents  that 
49 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

are  rearing  a  family  of  children  have  a  right  to 
be  taxed  at  a  lower  rate  than  the  couple  living 
in  solitary  comfort. 

Direct  taxes  are,  I  suppose,  liked  by  no  one. 
He  who  pays  is  too  conscious  that  he  is  being 
taxed.  Nevertheless,  the  humanitarian,  who 
realizes  that  a  man  may  feel  the  effects  of  taxes 
every  day  without  realizing  clearly  that  what  he 
suffers  is  the  result  of  taxation,  must  welcome 
any  system  which  lays  the  burden  of  supporting 
the  state  chiefly  upon  those  who  can  afford  to 
carry  it,  refusing  to  raise,  by  indirect  taxation, 
the  price  of  the  necessaries  of  life  to  a  point  at 
which  they  are  almost  beyond  the  reach  of  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  population.  Those  of 
us  who  know  Italy  have  observed  the  workings 
of  the  system  of  indirect  taxation  upon  the  prices 
of  commodities  which  the  masses  can  ill  afford  to 
do  without.  The  indirect  taxes  in  Germany  are 
not  oppressive  to  the  masses. 

I  have  no  desire  to  recommend  any  or  all  of 
the  measures  which  the  German  states  have 
thought  fit  to  pass  in  order  to  pay  the  expenses 
of  their  governments.  Taxation  is  a  science  of 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

itself,  and  the  layman  has  little  right  to  express 
an  opinion.  But  it  has  inspired  me,  an  American, 
with  a  lively  curiosity,  to  see  in  this  field,  as  in 
the  field  of  social  legislation  discussed  above,  that 
forms  of  government,  which  it  would  not  occur 
to  the  American  to  call  democratic,  and  which 
contain  certain  elements  foreign  to  his  notion  of 
what  constitutes  a  government  of  and  by  the 
people,  should  legislate  distinctly  for  the  people. 
These  governments  exercise  a  paternalism  which 
is  all-embracing.  They  are  penetrated  by  a  cer- 
tain spirit  of  fairness,  and  they  appear  to  make 
it  a  fundamental  maxim  that  the  mass  of  the 
citizens  have  a  right  to  an  endurable  existence 
and  must  not  be  exploited  in  the  interests  of  any 
class.  To  regard  them  as  governments  for  a 
class  is  absurd.  Whether  they  have  a  logical 
right  to  the  title  or  not,  they  are  in  fact  govern- 
ments for  the  people. 

GERMAN  RIGHTS  AND  AMERICAN  IMPRESSIONS 

'  I  have  indicated  above  that  the  American  is 
more  conscious  of  being  governed  in  Germany 
than  in  his  own  country.  He  is  not  infrequently; 

51 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

confronted  by  the  sign  "forbidden  by  the  police," 
and  it  takes  him  some  time  to  discover  that  the 
word  "police"  does  not  mean  at  all  what  it  does 
with  us,  but  includes  the  whole  machinery  which 
has  to  do  with  the  protection  of  the  workers, 
factory  inspection,  etc.,  and  that  it  even  extends 
to  the  cleaning  of  the  streets  in  the  cities. 

Still,  the  American  is  long  impressed  by  the 
number  of  the  things  that  are  forbidden.  Not 
only  is  his  neighbor  forbidden  to  do  things  that 
will  annoy  him,  but  he  himself  appears  to  be 
forbidden  to  injure  himself  in  the  many  ways 
open  to  a  freeman  of  courage  and  independence. 
The  citizen  is  taken  care  of,  and  it  is  not  every- 
one who  wishes  to  be  taken  care  of. 

Furthermore,  as  we  have  seen,  in  Germany  a 
man  is  made  his  brother's  keeper.  If  he  is  an 
employer  of  labor,  he  is  forced  into  the  paternal 
attitude,  which,  to  be  sure,  many  American 
employers  of  labor,  individuals  and  corporations, 
voluntarily  assume,  but  which  all  are  not  forced 
to  assume.  The  obligation  is  distasteful  to 
many. 

If  the  American  is  a  house-holder  in  Germany, 
52 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

he  is  very  conscious  that  he  has  servants  with 
definite  rights  established  either  by  law  or  by  a 
custom  which  seems  to  have  an  equivalent  sanc- 
tion, and  not  with  rights  which  they  merely  arro- 
gate to  themselves.    He  forgets  to  paste  upon  the 
cards  furnished  for  the  purpose  the  invalid-in- 
surance stamps  required  by  law ;  he  does  not  keep 
track  of  the  many  public  holidays  observed  in 
most  of  the  German  states,  and  he  suffers  in- 
convenience.    However,  everything  has  its  two 
sides,  as  I  discovered  when  my  cook  went  raving 
mad,  and  the  possession  of  a  small  strip  of  paper, 
showing  that  she  was  properly   insured,  made 
it  possible  for  me  to  telephone  and  to  have  her 
taken  by  the  proper  officials  to  the  Psychiatrical 
Clinic,  placed  under  the  supervision  of  the  fa- 
mous Kraepelin,  and  cared  for  as  well  as  if  she 
were  a  woman  of  means.     She  was  not  treated 
as  a  pauper,  and  I  was  not  put  to  any  trouble  or 
expense.     I  had  done  my  part  and  the  govern- 
ment did  the  rest.    The  responsibility  for  others 
laid  in  Germany  upon  the  shoulders  of  those  who 
are  at  all  well-to-do  comes  to  be  regarded  by  the 
American  as  less  burdensome,  when  he  learns 
53 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

to  understand  its  significance.  But  he  can  hardly 
be  expected  to  discover  at  once  that  he  has  to- 
wards the  charwoman  who  regularly  makes  her 
appearance  upon  his  premises  other  duties  than 
those  of  paying  her  and  treating  her  civilly. 

Upon  certain  rights  an  emphasis  is  laid  in  Ger- 
many that  must  seem  to  those  brought  up  in 
other  lands  strange  and  unusual.  We  believe  in 
free  competition  in  business;  so  does  the  Ger- 
man. But  he  regards  some  kinds  of  competi- 
tion as  unfair,  and  it  does  not  strike  him  as 
improper  to  have  a  law  against  unfair  competi- 
tion. Thus,  one  may  not  advertise  a  clearing- 
out  sale  to  close  a  business,  and  then  profit  by 
the  sale  without  clearing-out  and  closing.  Upon 
his  right,  not  merely  to  compete  in  business,  but 
to  enjoy  fair  conditions  of  competition,  the  Ger- 
man insists. 

Again,  it  appears  to  be  accepted  that  even  the 
poor  man  has  a  certain  right  to  his  self-respect. 
A  man  may  not  with  impunity  be  called  by  of- 
fensive names,  even  if  he  occupy  a  very  humble 
position.  Furthermore,  it  is  recognized  that  men 
have  a  certain  right  to  their  privacy.  Their 
54 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

neighbors  may  not  circulate  injurious  reports 
about  them,  even  if  the  reports  be  true.  The 
right  to  privacy  is,  in  certain  cases,  carefully 
maintained  even  against  the  government.  The 
bank  with  which  we  have  our  dealings  may  not 
give  information  about  our  financial  affairs  even 
to  the  tax-office.  All  its  officers  are  bound  to 
secrecy.  For  this  peculiar  provision  there  seem 
to  be  palpable  economic  grounds. 

WHOM  DOES  THE  GERMAN  OBEY? 
The  more  the  American  looks  into  the  actual 
workings  of  government  in  Germany,  the  more 
he  is  impressed  with  the  fact  that,  although  the 
German  is  very  thoroughly  governed,  he  is  gov- 
erned in  his  own  interests.  Life  is  tolerable  for 
all  classes,  and  not  merely  for  the  high-born  and 
the  rich.  The  military  officer,  honored,  it  may 
be,  but,  according  to  our  notions,  underpaid  and 
often  hard- worked,  is  as  much  under  authority 
as  is  any  civilian.  All  are  taught  to  obey;  all 
have  their  burdens  to  bear.  The  German  belongs 
to  the  state  and  he  is  educated  to  believe  that 
he  owes  something  to  the  state  and  that  the  state 

55 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

owes  him  a  good  deal.  Upon  his  rights  he  insists, 
and  in  Germany  that  often  comes  under  the  head 
of  right  which  in  other  lands  comes  under  the 
head  of  charity. 

Whom  does  the  German  ultimately  obey?  To 
this  question  I  can  give  no  other  answer  than: 
He  obeys  the  state.  If  he  obeys  an  individual 
he  obeys  him  only  as  the  representative  of  the 
state.  The  whole  complicated  machine  is  not 
constructed  and  carried  on  in  the  interests  of 
given  individuals  or  given  classes,  although,  as 
we  have  seen,  traditional  rights  have  not  been 
swept  away  in  the  process  of  evolution  through 
which  the  German  nation  has  been  going.  The 
Germans  have  been  experimenting  as  we  have. 
Their  instinct  has  been  for  progress,  in  the 
avoidance  of  revolution.  It  seems  sufficiently 
curious  that  the  extensive  reforms  in  social  legis- 
lation discussed  above  should  have  received  their 
initial  impulse  from  an  Emperor,  and  should 
have  had  the  active  support  of  the  Social-Demo- 
cratic party.  Whatever  aristocratic  and  con- 
servative elements  the  German  governments  may 
retain,  they  have  not  been  found  incompatible 

56 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

with  the  introduction  of  such  reforms,  nor  have 
they  shaken  the  conviction  of  the  German  that 
his  government  exists  for  and  in  the  interest  of 
the  German  people.  The  arbitrary  exercise  of 
power  by  any  German  official  is  sure  to  give  rise 
to  indignation. 

Americans  who  have  come  to  know  Germany 
well  have  often  remarked  to  me:  "The  German 
government,  whatever  its  constitution,  has  stolen 
their  thunder  from  the  Socialists."  It  is  perhaps 
not  well  to  use  a  word  which  has,  for  many 
persons,  objectionable  associations.  But  the  truth 
should  be  acknowledged  that  the  often-remarked 
willing  obedience  of  the  German  to  the  consti- 
tuted authorities  has  its  roots  in  the  conviction 
that  he  is  not  yielding  obedience  to  an  arbitrary 
power,  but  is  bowing  to  the  state,  which  exists 
in  his  interests,  and  of  which  he  feels  himself  to 
be  a  part. 

SUMMARY 

We  see,  thus,  that  the  German  citizen  lives 
under  a   federal  government  not   so  very   dis- 
similar from  our  own;  that  he  has,  under  the 
57 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

Federal  Government,  significant  political  rights, 
and  is  by  the  Federal  Government  guaranteed  a 
multitude  of  private  rights,  in  whatever  German 
state  he  may  have  his  domicile.  The  supposed 
dictatorial  power  of  the  Emperor  is  a  chimera. 
We  have  seen,  furthermore,  that  the  several 
German  states,  whatever  traditional  conservative 
elements  their  constitutions  may  retain,  grant  to 
their  citizens  political  rights  of  a  good  deal  of 
importance.  And  we  have  seen  that  the  courts 
are  just,  the  officials  surprisingly  honest,  and  the 
private  rights  of  German  citizens  well  protected. 
Social  legislation  for  the  workers  is  most  ex- 
tensive and  is  efficiently  organized;  there  is  an 
effort  made  to  spare  the  poor  man  the  burden 
of  unjust  and  excessive  taxes.  In  short,  the 
Germany  of  to-day  is  not  the  Germany  which 
Carl  Schurz  and  men  like  him  left  to  seek  a 
refuge  elsewhere.  Such  men  stay  at  home  now; 
and,  as  a  German  scholar,  animated  by  much  the 
same  spirit  as  Schurz,  remarked  to  me  lately,  it 
is  the  harder  to  introduce  reforms,  as  the  German 
government  is  a  good  government  and  most  men 
do  not  feel  acute  and  pressing  grievances. 

58 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

Under  the  circumstances  it  is  absurd  to  speak 
of  the  German  people  as  groaning  under  a  yoke 
of  any  kind.  As  long  as  there  is  life  and  growth 
in  the  nation,  there  will  and  there  ought  to  be 
some  discontent  and  a  disposition  to  introduce 
reforms.  We  Americans  have,  for  our  benefit, 
the  same  spirit.  We  are  never  content,  and  we 
ought  not  to  be  content;  neither  should  the  Ger- 
man. But  any  reforms  which  he  introduces 
will  probably  not  be  uninfluenced  by  his  tradi- 
tions and  the  actual  position  in  which  he  finds 
himself.  We  have  practically  a  'continent  to 

ourselves;  we  live  in  a  villa.     The  German  oc- 

_-"**"^ 
cupies  a  flat,  and  he  is  more  conscious  of  his 

neighbors.  He  cannot  introduce  reforms  without 
bearing  that  fact  in  mind,  as  we  shall  see  in 
Chapter  V. 


CHAPTER   IH 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  PEOPLE 
IN  GERMANY 

ANY  account  of  German  national  life  which 
would  omit  a  description  of  the  education 
of  the  German  people  would  be  as  incomplete  as 
the  play  of  Hamlet  with  that. problematical  hero 
wholly  left  out. 

Germany  cannot  be  understood  at  all  by  one 
who  knows  nothing  of  its  system  of  education. 
There  is  no  subject,  not  even  that  of  the  national 
defenses,  to  which  the  German  has  devoted  more 
careful  attention.  There  is  no  institution  of  the 
state  upon  which  he  is  more  willing  to  spend 
money  and  labor  than  upon  the  system  of  schools, 
lower  and  higher.  It  is  education  that  has  made 
Germany  what  it  is,  and  Germany  knows  it. 

The  belief  in  education  is  in  Germany  a  re- 
ligion. That  every  citizen  has  a  right  to  a  reason- 
60 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

ably  good  education  is  an  article  of  faith.  The 
popular  support  given  to  the  public  school  system 
in  our  great  democracy  shows  that  we  occupy 
much  the  same  standpoint  as  the  Germans.  We 
believe  that  the  citizens  must  be  educated  or  the 
state  will  suffer.  "How  can  the  children  learn 
if  they  ain't  got  no  slates?"  I  heard  a  local 
school-director  waiting  for  a  car,  in  Philadel- 
phia, angrily  vociferate  to  two  less  intelligent 
fellow-citizens.  All  honor  to  the  man,  in  spite 
of  his  defective  English.  He  was  a  prophet  of 
enlightenment,  and  he  wanted  to  insure  to  the 
rising  generation  some  of  the  good  things  that 
he  had  missed. 

Sometimes  the  enthusiasm  for  education  which 
permeates  the  German  people  shows  itself  in 
amusing  ways.  A  cook  whom  I  employed  sixteen 
years  ago,  when  I  spent  a  year  and  a  half  in  Ger- 
many, afterwards  kept  up  a  correspondence  with 
my  wife's  maid,  an  Englishwoman.  She  ex- 
pressed in  one  of  her  letters  some  dissatisfaction 
with  the  position  she  had  found  after  leaving  me. 
Her  master  was  a  baron  and  lived  in  a  castle 
upon  his  own  estates.  But,  as  the  cook  wrote 
61 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

with  disapprobation,  the  nobleman  in  question 
was  not  a  scholar  and  he  appeared  to  be  inter- 
ested only  in  agriculture.  To  be  sure,  all  German 
cooks  do  not  have  the  same  reverence  for  pro- 
fessors. 

THE  SCHOOLS  FOR  THE  PEOPLE 

The  percentage  of  illiteracy  in  the  German 
states  is  practically  a  negligible  quantity.  As 
determined  by  the  examinations  of  the  recruits 
for  the  compulsory  military  service,  it  falls  in 
Bavaria  to  one  hundredth  of  one  per  cent.  That 
is  to  say,  only  one  man  in  ten  thousand  is  classed 
as  illiterate.  In  Prussia  the  number  is  four  men 
in  ten  thousand,  the  character  of  the  population 
in  the  less-civilized  East  upon  the  Russian  border 
accounting  for  the  difference. 

The  education  of  the  people  is  compulsory  in 
all  the  German  states;  and  in  all,  except  in  the 
two  minute  grand-duchies  of  Mecklenburg,  the 
first  eight  years  of  school  life  are  practically  the 
same. 

The  primary  schools  claim  the  children  from 
their  sixth  to  their  fourteenth  year.  They  are 
62 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

there  taught  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  the 
elements  of  geometry,  history,  geography,  the 
elements  of  physics  and  chemistry,  a  little  zoology 
and  botany,  German  literature  and  composition. 
They  also  receive  instruction  in  religion,  in  draw- 
ing, in  singing  and  in  gymnastics.  The  teaching 
is  very  thorough,  and  is  everywhere  under  the 
supervision  of  the  state. 

As  may  readily  be  seen,  the  child  who  starts 
out  in  life  with  such  an  equipment  is  fitted  to 
become  something  more  than  a  tool  in  the  hands 
of  others.  In  the  cities,  boys  often  receive  in- 
struction in  manual  training,  and  the  girls  in 
house-work  and  needle-work,  but  this  is  not  the 
case  everywhere.  In  the  country,  the  additional 
instruction  may  be,  respectively,  in  fruit- farming 
and  in  needle-work. 

There  is  one  aspect  of  the  school-life  of  the 
child  in  Germany  upon  which  it  seems  especially 
worth  while  to  dwell.  In  Southern  Germany,  at 
least,  it  is  expected  that  the  children  of  all  classes 
of  the  population,  even  the  highest,  should,  dur- 
ing the  first  years  of  their  education,  attend  the 
public  primary  or  "people's"  schools.  Attend- 

63 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

ance  upon  other  schools  is  discouraged,  and  per- 
mission to  attend  pay-schools  is  granted  only  in 
special  cases  and  for  cause.  One  of  the  most 
common  excuses  urged  is  that  the  health  of  the 
child  will  not  permit  of  the  usual  schooling.  In 
North  Germany  there  are  public  pay-schools 
which  lead  up  to  the  higher  schools,  and  to  these 
the  richer  classes  are  apt  to  send  their  children. 

The  arrangement  in  South  Germany  is  the 
more  democratic,  but,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  it 
does  not  go  far  enough.  There  is  a  good  deal 
of  agitation  among  educators  in  Germany  in 
favor  of  making  certain  changes  in  the  school 
courses  and  compelling  all  children  between  the 
years  of  six  and  fourteen  to  attend  the  same 
public  primary  schools.  It  is  thought  that  the 
whole  body  of  future  citizens  should,  during  the 
first  eight  years  of  their  schooling,  be  educated 
together,  just  as  the  body  of  able-bodied  male 
citizens  come  together  for  a  final  schooling  when 
they  receive  their  military  training.  The  agita- 
tion is  prompted  by  democratic  sentiment  and  is 
urged  in  the  interest  of  the  state. 


64 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

.  •     THE  CONTINUATION-SCHOOLS 

Compulsory  education  in  the  regular  schools 
is  at  an  end  when  the  child  is  fourteen  years  old. 
But  even  a  bright  child  of  fourteen,  taken  out 
of  school  and  set  to  work  under  unfavorable 
circumstances,  may  become  dulled  and  lifeless, 
unpromising  material  for  citizenship  in  any  walk 
in  life.  Character  is  unformed;  the  significance 
of  education  has  not  yet  become  apparent;  the 
child  has  not  learned  to  think  for  himself,  and  he 
must  be  saved  from  himself. 

To  accomplish  this  purpose  the  continuation- 
schools  have  been  founded  to  meet  the  needs  of 
those  whose  parents  cannot  afford  to  keep  them 
longer  in  school.  In  all  of  the  German  states 
attendance  is  obligatory  in  towns  of  over  10,000 
inhabitants.  In  the  country,  and  in  small  towns, 
it  is  obligatory  except  in  Prussia  and  in  Meck- 
lenburg. The  pupils  must  attend  for  at  least  two 
years  after  the  completion  of  the  primary  school 
course.  In  the  larger  towns  attendance  is  com- 
pulsory at  least  until  the  completion  of  their 
seventeenth  year. 

65 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

WHAT  is  TAUGHT  IN  CONTINUATION-SCHOOLS 

The  continuation-schools  are  divided  into  two 
groups,  those  for  skilled  workers  and  those  for 
children  who  will  become  unskilled  laborers. 

Boys  who  attend  the  schools  for  skilled 
workers  receive  direct  vocational  training,  and 
instruction  regarding  materials,  tools  and  the 
making  of  estimates  of  costs.  They  are  further 
instructed  in  physics  and  chemistry,  geometry, 
drawing,  bookkeeping,  civics  and  German  liter- 
ature. In  Munich,  Strasburg  and  Diisseldorf 
they  learn  shop-work. 

Boys  who  are  to  remain  unskilled  laborers 
receive  instruction  in  arithmetic,  German  liter- 
ature, civics,  and  what  is  called  "Heimatkunde," 
i.e.,  information  regarding  the  industrial  and 
economic  conditions  of  the  state  or  district  in 
which  the  school  is  situated. 

Girls  are,  like  boys,  divided  into  the  classes  of 
those  who  are  to  follow  skilled  occupations  and 
those  who  are  not.  The  former  receive  instruc- 
tion analogous  to  that  provided  for  boys  of  the 
first  class.  The  latter  ar-e  taught  all  kinds  of 
66 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

house-work  and  needle-work,  bookkeeping  for 
the  home,  and  some  literature  and  arithme- 
tic. 

Instruction  in  continuation-schools  is  not  as 
yet  obligatory  for  girls  in  all  the  German  states 
to  the  same  extent  as  it  is  for  boys.  It  is,  how- 
ever, obligatory  in  all  the  larger  towns,  and  in 
Southern  Germany  it  is  obligatory  also  in  rural 
districts. 

Pupils  in  the  continuation-schools  receive  from 
six  to  ten  hours  of  instruction  a  week  in  the 
towns,  and  from  three  to  four  in  the  country.  All 
instruction  is  free,  and  employers  are  compelled, 
under  heavy  penalties,  to  make  it  possible  for  the 
boys  and  girls  to  attend.  The  influence  of  the 
whole  system  towards  raising  the  general  average 
of  intelligence  among  the  workers  of  the  nation 
can  scarcely  be  overestimated. 

THE  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

Parents  who  can  keep  their  children  at  school 
longer  than  the  German  law  compels  them  to  do 
so,  do  not  keep  them  at  the  primary  or  people's 
schools  up  to  their  fourteenth  year.  At  about 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

their  ninth  or  tenth  year  they  transfer  them  to 
the  lowest  class  of  a  secondary  school.  The 
German  secondary  schools  covering,  loosely 
speaking,  the  ground  covered  by  our  public  gram- 
mar-schools and  high-schools,  although  they 
carry  the  students  further,  are  some  of  them 
chiefly  classical  and  some  chiefly  scientific  in 
character.  There  is  no  need  of  my  describing 
them  in  detail.  The  course  extends  over  nine 
years  and  is  a  very  thorough  one.  There  is  only 
one  circumstance  upon  which,  in  this  connection, 
I  need  dwell,  and  that  is  the  class  of  pupils  by 
which  they  are  frequented. 

The  government  keeps  a  record  of  the  occupa- 
tions followed  by  the  parents,  and  I  recently 
examined,  with  much  curiosity,  such  a  list,  indi- 
cating the  classes  of  society  represented  in  one  of 
the  large  public  schools  in  Munich.  Along  with 
the  children  of  what  are,  even  with  us,  sometimes 
unhappily  called  the  "upper  classes"  of  the  popu- 
lation, I  found  abundantly  represented  the  chil- 
dren of  street-car  conductors,  travelling  sales- 
men, house-painters,  postmen,  electricians,  milk- 
men, head-waiters,  janitors,  locomotive-engineers, 
68 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

switchmen,  bakers,  stokers,  coopers,  and  chimney- 
sweeps. 

This  is  a  striking  circumstance.  Education, 
even  the  higher  education,  is,  in  Germany,  not 
the  portion  of  the  few.  Where  there  is  a  will 
to  rise  in  the  world,  and  even  a  moderate  degree 
of  ability,  there  is  always  a  way.  For  this  the 
cheapness  of  education  in  Germany,  of  which 
I  shall  soon  speak,  is  largely  responsible. 

Attendance  upon  the  schools  in  question  opens 
up  the  road  to  a  vast  number  of  careers.  Through 
these  schools  lies  the  path  which  leads  to  the 
universities,  the  technical  schools,  and  the  other 
higher  professional  schools.  But  those  who  at- 
tend them  also  become  eligible,  without  going  so 
far,  to  countless  positions  in  the  gift  of  the  state 
or  under  the  municipal  governments,  to  posts  in 
the  higher  industries,  and  to  careers  in  banking 
and  commerce.  Education  in  Germany  is  in 
theory  and  in  practice  thoroughly  democratic. 
Neither  wealth  nor  social  position  will  enable  a 
student  to  pass  the  inevitable  state-examinations, 
and,  without  that  qualification,  men  find  all  sorts 
of  careers  closed  to  them. 

69 


I, 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

THE  HIGHEST  SCHOOLS 

The  German  uses  the  word  "High-school"  to 
describe  the  universities  and  various  professional 
schools  which  he  considers  as  of  the  same  grade, 
such  as  schools  of  technology,  forestry,  agri- 
culture, etc.  Admission  to  these  is  carefully 
guarded,  for  the  requirements  for  admission  are 
high.  But  the  poverty  of  the  student  need  be 
no  barrier.  I  know  German  students  well,  and 
can  testify,  not  merely  that  many  of  them  are 
very  poor,  but  that  numbers  come  from  among 
the  simplest  classes  of  the  population.  How,  in 
view  of  their  poverty,  so  many  of  them  have 
managed  to  get  so  far  is  to  me  a  mystery.  They 
are,  to  be  sure,  willing  to  undergo  hardship — of 
this  I  have  seen  a  good  deal  among  our  own 
students  in  America — and  here  and  there  they 
receive  aid  from  the  state  or  from  private  sources- 

Somehow  they  do  manage  to  live,  for  we  do 
not  find  them  starving  to  death.  It  was  an  Amer- 
ican negro  who  complained  that  his  prayer  for 
daily  bread  was  not  answered  precisely  as  he 
had  hoped.  He  got  his  daily  bread,  he  said,  but 
70 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

the  Lord  starved  him  until  he  could  eat  any- 
thing, and  that  was  the  way  in  which  he  got  it. 
Some  German  students  can  claim  to  have  had  a 
similar  experience.  However,  they  beat  their 
way  through,  and  there  are  those  among  them 
who  rise  to  eminence  and  repay  the  state  a 
hundredfold  for  the  cost  of  their  education. 

THE  COST  OF  AN  EDUCATION  IN  GERMANY, 

In  the  primary  schools,  tuition  is  free  in  the 
towns  and  in  many  rural  districts.  Elsewhere  it 
costs  from  fifty  cents  to  a  dollar  and  a  half  a 
year.  In  the  secondary  schools  in  Bavaria,  it 
costs  about  a  dollar  a  month;  in  Prussia  it  costs 
about  three  dollars  and  a  half.  The  poorer  chil- 
dren in  the  primary  schools  receive  their  text- 
books from  the  state;  the  others  do  not.  In  the 
universities,  a  course  of  one  hour  a  week  for 
one  term  (it  comprises  about  twenty  lectures) 
costs  a  dollar. 

As   may   readily  be   seen,   neither  the   lower 

schools  nor  the  higher  are  carried  on  upon  a 

paying  basis.    The  state  offers  tuition  practically 

for  nothing;    it  must  look  elsewhere  than  to 

71 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

tuition  fees  for  a  return  on  its  expenditure. 
Where  does  it  get  its  return?  Just  where  our 
states  get  their  return  for  what  they  spend  on  the 
education  of  the  people, 

THE  GAIN  TO  GERMANY 

There  is  no  gain  to  a  country  like  that  derived 
from  the  possession  of  an  intelligent  and  dis- 
ciplined population.  The  primary  schools  and 
the  continuation-schools  have  been  furnishing 
Germany  with  an  army  of  workers  who  are  not 
mere  "hands."  The  education  which  they  have 
received,  and  the  social  legislation  in  their  in- 
terest, with  the  details  of  which  they  are  per- 
fectly well  acquainted,  have  already  made  life  take 
on  for  them  less  of  the  aspect  of  a  struggle  of 
class  against  class.  Every  industry  has  felt  the 
benefit  of  the  rise  in  the  character  of  the  popula- 
tion, and  most  industries  have  prospered,  in  spite 
of  the  burden  imposed  upon  them  by  the  elabo- 
rate system  of  insurance  for  workers. 

Moreover,  to  the  humanitarian  it  seems  no 
small  gain  that  a  man's  daily  work  should  be 
raised  out  of  the  domain  of  sordid  drudgery  gone 
72 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

through  with  only  to  attain  a  living  wage.  The 
man  sufficiently  intelligent  to  have  a  pride  and  a 
pleasure  in  his  work,  and  to  have  some  concep- 
tion of  the  significance  of  his  work  in  the  life  of 
the  state,  is  raised  upon  a  higher  plane  and  is 
worthy  to  be  called  a  citizen.  Much  as  it  has  cost 
the  state,  the  education  of  the  masses  has  paid 
for  itself  in  Germany.  It  is  not  without  its 
significance  that  poverty  need  not  imply  degrada- 
tion, and  that  the  slum  is  more  rarely  to  be  found 
in  German  cities  than  in  those  of  most  countries. 
Upon  the  gain  which  accrues  to  the  state  from 
its  elaborate  and  highly  democratic  system  of 
higher  education  it  is  almost  superfluous  to  dwell. 
The  brains  of  the  state  are,  directly  or  indirectly, 
in  the  service  of  the  state.  At  the  universities 
and  in  many  professional  schools  thousands  of 
able  men,  selected,  as  I  have  indicated  above, 
from  all  classes  of  society,  are  trained  to  increase 
human  knowledge  and  to  apply  what  has  already 
been  attained  to  the  service  of  mankind.  From 
the  higher  institutions  of  learning  in  Germany 
we  Americans  have  borrowed  a  very  great  deal. 
My  first  visit  to  Germany  thirty-one  years  ago 
73 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

had  as  its  aim  the  visiting  of  a  number  of  uni- 
versities with  a  view  to  obtaining  hints  of  which 
I  could  make  direct  use  at  home.  At  that  time 
the  majority  of  our  own  universities  were  little 
more  than  colleges  somewhat  -loosely  connected 
with  certain  professional  faculties  too  often  upon 
a  proprietary  basis.  The  remarkable  development 
which  our  higher  institutions  of  learning  have 
undergone  since  has  kept  pace  with  the  develop- 
ment of  our  country,  and  bears  testimony  to  the 
energy  and  enterprise  of  the  American,  as  well 
as  to  the  disinterested  generosity  of  our  com- 
patriots. But  that  development  has  not  been  by 
any  means  a  wholly  independent  one. 

The  Germans  have  cultivated  such  seemingly 
unpractical  subjects  as  philology  and  philosophy. 
But  they  have  cultivated  with  no  less  assiduity 
medicine,  the  mechanic  arts,  chemistry  and 
physics,  veterinary  medicine,  agriculture,  forestry 
— in  short,  all  those  sciences  which  make  directly 
for  the  physical  and  social  well-being  of  man- 
kind. Were  it  not  for  the  army  of  well-trained 
men  that  the  German  schools  have  turned  out, 
Germany  could  never  have  become  the  rich  and 
74 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

prosperous  nation  that  she  is  to-day.  She  started, 
and  not  so  very  long  ago,  badly  handicapped. 
She  is  now  a  formidable  competitor  in  fields 
long  regarded  by  other  nations  as  peculiarly  their 
own.  Yes,  German  education  has  paid.  In 
building  up  their  schools  the  Germans  have  well 
served  themselves,  for  education  has  made  Ger- 
many. But,  incidentally,  the  Germans  have 
served  other  nations  as  well,  for  we  have  all 
profited  by  German  science  and  industry. 

OTHER  EDUCATIONAL  FACTORS 

Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  nor  shall 
civilized  man  be  accounted  as  living  a  wholly 
civilized  life,  if  his  education  is  quite  without 
a  tincture  of  certain  elements  not  usually  re- 
garded as  directly  practical.  Poetry  and  music 
have  their  place  in  the  world  as  well  as  chemistry 
and  physics. 

Those  who  appreciate  the  many-sidedness  of 
our  modern  civilization  and  believe  that  man 
should  not  merely  live,  but  should  live  well  and 
have  opened  up  to  him  many  sources  of  enjoy- 
ment, regard  schools  of  music  and  painting  as  a 
75 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

valuable  adjunct  to  the  educational  system  of  a 
state.  Somewhat  the  same  can  be  said  for  the 
theatre  and  opera,  when  they  are  treated  as  educa- 
tional institutions,  and  subsidised  so  that  they 
may  serve  the  purposes  of  such^  not  being  forced 
to  survive  only  through  a  successful  catering  to 
the  taste  of  the  unenlightened. 

In  Germany  the  educational  system  embraces 
such  institutions.  The  capitals  of  the  many  Ger- 
man states  are  provided  with  them,  as  well  as 
many  other  towns.  It  is  deemed  proper  that  the 
state  should  maintain  them,  and  they  are  not 
compelled  to  defray  their  own  expenses.  The 
son  of  any  peasant,  provided  he  shows  himself 
sufficiently  talented,  finds  open  to  him  a  career  as 
an  artist. 

Sometimes  the  burden  of  this  education  in  the 
arts  which  embellish  life  comes  upon  the  "civil 
list"  of  the  German  princes,  which  be  it  re- 
marked, should  in  no  wise  be  confounded  with 
the  private  income  of  a  steel-magnate  in  America. 
Here  in  Munich,  for  example,  the  excellence 
of  the  music  and  the  drama  is  at  the  royal  ex- 
pense. The  public  parks  and  that  popular  resort, 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

the  garden  of  the  palace,  are  kept  up  at  the  king's 
expense,  but  they  are  free  to  all.  I  drink  my 
coffee  on  sunny  afternoons  in  the  garden  of  the 
palace;  the  king  does  not.  Even  his  house 
scarcely  appears  to  belong  to  him.  A  large  part 
of  it  stands  open  to  anyone  who  cares  to  ask 
for  a  card  of  admission.  What  treasures  of  art 
it  contains  are  at  the  service  of  anyone,  as  are 
also  the  royal  collections  of  art  in  other  build- 
ings. 

The  educational  opportunities  of  Germans 
generally  are  thus  not  confined  to  ordinary 
schooling.  The  people  have  within  their  reach 
an  education  in  the  fine  arts;  and  many,  in  all 
walks  in  life,  profit  by  their  opportunities.  What 
this  means  can  well  be  appreciated  in  a  democratic 
land  like  our  own,  where  it  is  believed  that  all 
classes  have  a  moral  claim  upon  the  best  that 
life  has  to  offer.  I  can  pay  a  dollar  or  a  dollar 
and  a  half  for  an  expensive  seat  at  a  concert,  if 
I  choose  to  do  so.  My  pleasure  in  listening  to 
the  excellent  music  is  greatly  increased  by  the 
knowledge  that  many  of  those  present  in  the 
cheaper  seats  or  in  the  standing-room,  students 
77 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

and  others  who  have  little  to  spend,  are  enjoying 
Beethoven  and  Brahms  as  I  am,  but  at  an  ex- 
pense of  twelve  or  fifteen  cents — sometimes  at 
an  expense  of  only  seven  and  a  half.  Not  a 
few  of  them  are  reading  the  score  as  they  listen. 

THE  READING  OF  THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE 

The  output  of  books  in  Germany  is  simply 
enormous,  and  books  are  an  important  factor 
in  the  education  of  a  people.  Novels  are  read, 
of  course,  but  there  must  be  a  very  large  demand 
for  books  of  quite  a  different  kind  as  well,  or 
it  would  never  pay  anyone  to  print  them  in  such 
numbers.  It  rains  books  on  art,  history,  eco- 
nomics, politics — on  all  subjects  of  serious  in- 
terest to  the  German  nation.  These  books  are 
read,  not  by  the  few,  but  by  the  many.  Some 
of  them  are  foolish  books,  sensational  books; 
but  some  of  them,  and  not  the  least  read,  are 
sober  and  instructive  works. 

I  have  said  that  those  who  attend  the  contin- 
uation-schools receive  instruction  in  civics.  I 
may  add  that  the  mass  of  the  German  people  are 
continually  receiving  such  instruction  through 

78 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

books  containing  "Information  for  the  German 
Citizen,"  published  in  large  editions  and  sown 
broad-cast  among  the  people.  I  have  just  been 
reading  such  a  work.  It  is  one  among  many, 
but  it  is  in  its  sixth  edition,  and  I  find  on  the 
title-page  "thirty-sixth  to  thirty-ninth  thousand." 
It  contains,  as  do  other  books  of  its  class,  accu- 
rate information  regarding  the  constitution  of 
the  Empire  and  the  states  which  compose  it,  and 
detailed  descriptions  of  the  rights  and  duties  of 
all  classes  of  Germans. 

The  average  German  is  a  well-read  and  a 
well-informed  man.  So  far  as  his  relation  to 
the  state  is  concerned,  he  is  quite  as  well  in- 
structed as  is  the  average  American.  He  knows 
what  he  can  do  towards  extending  his  rights 
in  legitimate  ways,  and  what  he  cannot.  Some 
Germans  are  too  much  occupied  with  their  own 
affairs  to  give  such  matters  serious  attention. 
So  also,  unhappily,  are  some  Americans. 

SUMMARY 

Germany  is  thus  emphatically  the  land  of  edu- 
cation.   Illiteracy  is  practically  non-existent.    All 
79 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

classes  of  the  population  must  be  educated ;  upon 
this  the  government  insists.  And  many  classes 
of  the  population  enjoy  a  high  degree  of  edu- 
cation. The  government  has  made  as  serious 
an  effort  as  has  ever  been  made  by  any  govern- 
ment to  enlighten  all  its  citizens.  In  this  sphere, 
as  in  others,  it  has  shown  itself  to  be  a  govern- 
ment for  the  people,  and  this  should  appeal  with 
peculiar  force  to  Americans. 

It  is  worth  while  to  point  out  that  the  spread 
of  universal  enlightenment  is  not  the  way  to 
secure  the  tyrannical  domination  of  any  "caste." 
In  fact,  it  is  the  destruction  of  such  a  domina- 
tion. In  Russia,  just  across  the  border  of 
Prussia,  popular  enlightenment  is  more  feared 
than  is  the  bubonic  plague.  The  German  thinks 
he  has  reasons  for  accepting  a  strong  centralized 
government.  Nothing  else  than  this  belief  can 
account  for  the  attitude  taken  by  so  enlightened 
a  body  of  men  as  the  German  Social-Democrats 
in  the  crisis  which  faced  them  in  1914.  They 
knew  very  well  that  no  other  government  in 
Europe  was  doing  as  much  for  the  classes  to 
which  they  exhibit  a  passionate  devotion  as  was 
80 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

the  government  of  their  Empire.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve that  any  government  would  be  strong 
enough  to  hold  down  the  German  nation,  edu- 
cated as  it  is  and  united  as  it  is,  if  that  nation 
felt  that  it  was  suffering  under  a  tyranny. 

One  question  remains  which  may  naturally 
present  itself  to  the  mind  of  the  American.  Ger- 
man education  does  not  consist  merely  in  the  im- 
parting of  information.  The  German  is  trained 
to  discipline  from  his  earliest  years.  He  learns 
when  young  to  obey,  and  this  discipline  is  capped 
later  by  his  years  of  military  service.  Does  he 
suffer  in  independence  of  character,  in  a  capacity 
for  taking  the  initiative,  in  efficiency  ?  The  ques- 
tion is  a  very  fair  one.  There  are  few  gains 
which  must  not  be  purchased  at  the  expense  of 
some  loss. 

Undoubtedly  he  who  is  habitually  conscious 
of  his  place  in  a  larger  organism  is  rendered 
less  inclined  to  quite  independent  action  for 
which  there  is  no  precedent.  I  think  the  young 
American  impresses  one  as  being,  in  practical 
matters,  at  least,  a  more  independent  man  than 
the  average  young  German.  Whether  this  does 
81 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

or  does  not  add  to  his  efficiency  as  a  member 
of  the  state  is  another  question.  That  German 
efficiency  as  a  whole  has  not  been  diminished  by 
the  training  to  which  Germans  are  subjected 
has  been  made  sufficiently  evident  both  in  peace 
and  in  war.  In  peace,  by  the  extraordinary  de- 
velopment of  Germany  since  the  foundation  of 
the  Empire;  in  war,  by  what  the  Germans  have 
done  on  land  and  sea  since  August,  1914 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE   GERMAN   PEOPLE  AND   MILITARISM 

1FIND  no  institution  in  Germany  more  mis- 
understood by  the  average  American  than 
is  the  German  army.  It  is  not  that  we  do  not 
hear  enough  about  it.  We  hear  about  it  until 
we  are  tired  of  the  subject.  But  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  whole  military  system  remains  to  us 
^a  sealed  book. 
We  are  told  that  the  strength  of  the  German 
army,  on  a  peace  footing,  is  over  half  a  million 
men.  The  number  seems  appalling.  What  can 
one  do  with  so  many  soldiers  in  time  of  peace? 
Thousands  of  us  visit  Germany  every  year,  and 
we  see  soldiers  everywhere.  We  hear  the  meas- 
ured tramp  of  the  sons  of  Mars  in  the  otherwise 
quiet  streets  of  many  towns.  The  cafes  are  apt 
to  be  gay  with  uniforms.  On  the  morning  after 
I  spent  my  first  night  in  Germany,  I  was  awak- 

83 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

ened  by  the  march  of  a  passing  regiment,  and 
sprang  to  the  window  to  see  the  unaccustomed 
sight.  What  is  this  standing  army  of  which 
we  hear  so  much,  and  which  forces  itself  upon 
our  attention  when  we  visit  our  Teutonic  neigh- 
bors? How  does  it  happen  that  it  is  composed 
almost  exclusively  of  soldiers  who  are  little  more 
than  boys? 

WHAT  is  THE  GERMAN  ARMY? 

The  figures  which  I  shall  give  are  those  of  the 
year  1910,  the  last  accurate  published  statistics 
which  I  have  been  able  to  obtain.  In  1910  the 
army,  on  a  peace  footing  consisted  of  505,839 
men.  To  this  number  must  be  added  14,000 
"one-year  volunteers"  ("Einjahrige"),  to  be  de- 
scribed below,  85,234  non-commissioned  officers 
and  25,519  commissioned  officers. 

These  numbers  do  not  quite  do  justice  to  the 
force  which  was  in  existence  before  the  outbreak 
of  the  war  of  1914.  In  1867  it  was  determined 
by  law  in  Prussia  that  the  army  should  embrace 
one  per  cent,  of  the  population.  This  became  the 
German  standard,  but  population  increased  so 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

fast  that  it  was  found  impracticable  to  increase 
the  army  correspondingly.  Since  1910  some 
effort  has  been  made  to  bring  the  force  up  to 
the  proportion  indicated.  The  number  of  officers 
counted  upon  for  the  present  year  I  cannot  give 
exactly,  but  the  number  of  soldiers  looked  for- 
ward to  for  1915  was  661,478. 

How  MANY  ARE  PROFESSIONAL  SOLDIERS? 

It  is  a  colossal  blunder  to  suppose  that  this 
army,  which  is,  of  course,  enormous,  is  com- 
posed of  professional  soldiers.  The  common 
soldiers  —  the  overwhelming  majority  —  are 
youths  who  are  undergoing  a  military  training, 
and  who  have  no  intention  of  being  soldiers  at 
all,  unless  their  country  should  be  overwhelmed 
by  the  calamity  of  a  war.  The  tens  of  thousands 
of  soldiers  whom  the  American  tourist  sees  as 
he  travels  about,  he  would  find,  could  he  trace 
them  a  year  later,  or  the  year  after  that,  tilling 
the  fields,  mining  coal  and  iron,  serving  as  in- 
dustrial workers,  standing  behind  the  counters 
in  shops,  collecting  fares  on  the  tram-lines,  act- 
ing as  engineers,  brakemen  or  porters  in  the 

85 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

service  of  the  railways.  The  man  whom  he  sees 
in  uniform  to-day  will  sit  beside  him  to-morrow 
on  the  benches  of  the  medical  school,  and  will 
have  no  thought  save  of  his  future  career  as 
a  physician.  When  he  goes  to  a  restaurant  for 
his  luncheon,  he  will  be  waited  on  by  a  man  who 
marched  with  the  rest  a  few  years  back,  but  who 
is,  and  always  intends  to  remain,  a  waiter. 

The  truth  is  that  the  standing  army  of  Ger- 
many is  no  more  and  no  less  than  a  school.  The 
officers,  commissioned  and  non-commissioned, 
correspond  to  the  teachers.  They  are  relatively 
permanent.  But  the  pupils  go  to  the  school  to 
get  through  with  it  and  to  get  out  again.  It  is 
not  a  profession  to  go  to  school. 

THE  CITIZEN-ARMY 

Able-bodied  young  men  in  all  walks  in  life  are 
supposed  to  pass  through  the  school  in  question. 
Most  of  them  serve  in  the  infantry,  and  their 
school-course  covers  two  years.  Those  who 
serve  in  the  cavalry  or  in  the  horse-artillery  must 
have  three  years'  training.  During  this  time  the 
state  takes  possession  of  them  and  pays  all  their 
86 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

expenses.  The  training  is  thorough  and  the 
discipline  rigid.  Through  them  a  vast  number 
of  young  men  learn  for  the  first  time  what  it  is 
to  put  forth  real  effort  and  to  obey. 

The  whole  military  duty  of  the  young  citizen 
is  not  fulfilled  when  his  years  of  training  are 
over.  At  some  time  during  the  five  years  follow- 
ing he  must  undergo  three  further  periods  of 
training  covering,  respectively,  ten  weeks,  six 
weeks,  and  four  weeks.  The  dates  of  these  are 
left  somewhat  indefinite,  and  may  be  determined 
for  example,  by  a  change  in  army  equipment  and 
the  necessity  of  becoming  acquainted  with  a  new 
weapon. 

It  is  evident  that  the  German  government 
makes  rather  heavy  demands  upon  the  time  of 
her  able-bodied  male  population.  The  time  is 
not  wholly  lost,  even  apart  from  the  question 
of  the  necessity  of  making  sacrifices  for  the  de- 
fense of  the  nation.  It  is  claimed,  both  by  those 
interested  in  matters  educational  and  by  many 
employers  of  labor,  that  what  is  gained  in  dis- 
cipline, orderly  habits,  cleanliness  and  prompt 
obedience,  goes  far  to  make  up  for  what  is  lost 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

in  time.  Some  go  as  far  as  to  maintain  that  the 
astonishing  development  which  German  industries 
have  to  show,  as  a  result  of  the  last  decades,  is 
in  part  due  to  the  discipline  to  which  the  work- 
men have  been  subjected.  How  far  those  who 
speak  thus  are  unconsciously  influenced  by  pa- 
triotic feeling,  and  how  far  their  position  is  un- 
biased, and  rests  merely  upon  an  extended 
experience  with  the  classes  in  question,  I  have 
no  means  of  knowing.  That  the  severe  and 
impartial  discipline  to  which  young  men  are 
subjected  at  a  formative  period  of  their  lives  has 
no  little  influence  upon  their  character  and  habits, 
and  that  the  influence  is,  on  the  whole,  good,  I 
think  I  can  testify  from  personal  observation. 

Of  the  training  and  conditions  of  life  of  the 
"one-year  volunteers"  I  shall  speak  under  the 
next  heading.  I  think  the  facts  I  have  given  are 
sufficient  to  indicate  that  the  German  standing 
army  is  a  "citizen-army." 

It  shares  this  characteristic  with  the  armies 
of  other  European  nations  who  have  fallen  back 
upon   the   principle   of   short   term   compulsory , 
military  service.    The  conditions  are  so  different 
88 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

in  America  and  in  England  that  it  has  seemed 
worth  while  to  enter  into  the  matter  somewhat 
in  detail.  The  German  army  does  not  consist 
of  professional  soldiers.  All  classes  of  the  popu- 
lation, from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  pass 
through  this  school.  The  nobleman  and  the 
peasant,  the  judge  on  the  bench  and  the  door- 
keeper of  his  court,  the  physician  and  the  man 
who  drives  his  carriage,  the  university  professor 
and  the  man-servant,  the  wealthy  manufacturer 
and  the  man  who  takes  his  wage,  all  have 
"served."  And,  for  a  certain  period  of  their 
lives,  all  have  been  treated  alike,  for  the  army 
handles  recruits  of  all  classes  with  ungloved 
hands. 

The  standing  army  is,  as  I  have  said,  the 
school;  those  who  have  graduated,  the  alumni, 
must  take  their  place  in  the  army  in  time  of  war. 
Whether  in  peace  or  in  war,  the  force  is  fairly 
comparable  to  a  militia,  training  for  which  is 
compulsory,  and  which  makes  rather  heavy  de- 
mands on  those  who  are  enlisted  in  it.  It  is 
worthy  of  remark  that,  small  as  it  is,  the  British 
army  represents  about  twice  as  many  profes- 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

sional  soldiers  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  German 
army. 

THE  CITIZEN-OFFICER 

The  "one-year  volunteers,"  as  they  are  called, 
are  young  men  of  education  who  present  them- 
selves for  military  training,  and  who  themselves 
pay  the  expense  of  their  board,  lodging  and 
equipment  during  the  year,  for  which  they  are 
obliged  to  serve. 

The  rule  is  that  the  young  man  privileged  to 
take  his  military  training  under  such  conditions 
must  have  passed  through  the  first  six  years  of 
the  nine-year  course  of  a  German  secondary 
school.  In  other  words  he  must  have  an  educa- 
tion about  equal  to  that  of  the  graduate  of  an 
American  high-school.  It  is  claimed  that  re- 
cruits thus  educated  can  learn  as  much  in  one 
year  as  the  average  recruit  in  two,  and  that  they 
enjoy  a  high  average  of  intelligence.  Their  ex- 
penses during  their  year  of  service  are  reckoned 
at  from  four  hundred  to  five  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars. 

At  the  end  of  half  a  year  these  "one-year" 
90 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

men  are  divided  into  two  classes.  Those  who 
appear  especially  well  fitted  for  military  service, 
and  who  have  given  a  very  good  account  of 
themselves  during  their  first  months  of  training, 
receive  for  the  second  half  of  the  year  special 
courses  of  instruction.  At  the  close  of  the  year 
there  comes  an  examination  which  determines 
whether  they  may  enter  upon  the  path  which 
leads  to  the  dignity  of  enrollment  in  the  "Re- 
serve-Officer" class. 

Whether  the  young  man  shall  or  shall  not 
become  a  "candidate"  is  left  to  his  own  choice. 
Should  he  choose  the  honor,  he  must  undergo 
the  further  periods  of  training  demanded  of  all 
who  have  served.  After  that,  he  can,  if  elected, 
become  a  "Reserve-Officer."  The  election  is 
made  by  the  "Reserve-Officer  Corps"  of  the 
regiment  which  he  will  enter.  Before  he  is 
elected,  his  qualifications,  including  his  character, 
his  manner  of  life,  and  any  peculiarities  which 
may  affect  his  standing  as  an  officer,  are  thor- 
oughly looked  into. 

The  "Reserve-Officer"  is,  thus,  a  citizen-officer, 
not  a  soldier  by  profession.  The  men  who  have 
91 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

elected  him  to  the  position  have  had  the  training 
which  he  has  had,  and  are,  like  himself,  civilians. 
That  he  must  bind  himself  to  more  periods  of 
training  of  from  six  to  eight  weeks,  does  not  take 
him  out  of  the  civilian  class.  He -and  his  colleagues 
are  lawyers,  architects,  business  men,  teachers  and 
the  like.  But  they  have  learned  how  to  take  com- 
mand, in  time  of  emergency,  of  bodies  of  troops. 
I  have  heard,  from  military  sources,  that  during 
the  present  war  (1915)  these  militia-officers  have 
proved  themselves  so  efficient  that  the  officer- 
corps  of  the  German  army  is  in  the  future  more 
likely  to  extend  itself  in  this  direction  than  in 
that  of  the  professional  officers.  This  is,  of  course, 
mere  hearsay,  but  it  comes  from  good  sources. 

THE  SOLDIER  BY  PROFESSION 

We  have  seen  that,  in  1910,  there  were,  in  the 
German  army  85,234  non-commissioned  officers 
and  25,519  commissioned  officers. 

These  classes,  and  these  classes  alone,  com- 
prise the  body  of  those  who  may  properly  be 
called  soldiers  by  profession.  Taken  together 
they  number  about  110,000  men,  no  very  large 
92 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

number  in  a  population  so  enormous  as  is  that  of 
the  German  Confederation.  These  men  are  paid 
for  their  services  in  the  army,  others  are  not. 

I  say  that  the  others  are  not  paid,  but  perhaps 
I  should  modify  my  statement  a  little.  Those 
who  are  undergoing  their  military  training  re- 
ceive a  pittance  which  can  only  be  regarded  as 
pocket-money.  Thus,  the  infantry  soldier  is 
granted  about  two  dollars  and  fifteen  cents  a 
month.  This  can  scarcely  be  considered  as  a 
wage  earned  during  the  two  years  of  his  service. 
No  man  would  work  for  such  a  wage. 

The  non-commissioned  officers  are  supposed  to 
serve  for  twelve  years.  After  that  civil  positions 
are  found  for  them.  They  are  picked  men,  disci- 
plined and  reliable,  and  their  services  are  valued 
as  members  of  the  police-force,  guardians  of 
museums,  etc. 

The  commissioned  officers  receive  a  special 
training,  as  do  army  officers  in  the  United  States. 
They  may  grow  old  in  the  service.  We  often  hear 
of  them  as  a  privileged  class,  and  they  undoubt- 
edly enjoy  a  good  deal  of  social  consideration. 
But  privileged  to  draw  a  large  salary,  or  even 
93 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

what  the  American  would  regard  a  proper  salary, 
they  are  not.  A  commanding  general  in  the  Ger- 
man army  receives  about  three- fourths  of  the 
salary  of  a  professor  in  Columbia  University;  a 
colonel  receives  about  half  .as  much  as  the 
American  scholar  in  question.  Living  is  not 
cheap  in  Germany  at  present,  and  one  has  to 
make  sacrifices  for  the  privilege  of  being  an 
officer.  Why  do  men  make  them? 

I  suppose  they  are  moved  by  considerations 
analogous  to  those  which  lead  some  Americans 
of  ability  and  energy  to  take  to  science  or  art 
rather  than  to  business.  With  some  it  is  a  family 
tradition;  some  like  the  life;  some  think  of  the 
social  consideration. 

Certain  it  is  that,  if  indeed  the  Germans  have 
saddled  themselves  with  a  burden  of  any  kind, 
those  among  them  who  have  embraced  the  pro- 
fession of  arms  carry  their  full  share  of  it.  The 
so-called  "privileged  caste"  enjoys  no  civil 
rights  not  enjoyed  by  Germans  generally,  and 
its  members  are  not  unfamiliar  with  privation. 
In  personal  intercourse  with  them  I  have  not 
found  them  overbearing,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
94 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

uniformly  courteous.  I  cannot  but  think  that 
those  of  my  countrymen  who  have  a  different 
report  to  make  have,  through  their  ignorance 
of  the  German  language  or  un familiarity  with 
German  social  usages,  brought  upon  themselves 
what  might  easily  have  been  avoided. 

THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE  AND  THE  ARMY 

Doubtless  there  are  Germans  who  would 
rather  not  have  to  spend  two  or  three  years  in 
the  school  furnished  by  the  army.  No  American 
keenly  enjoys  paying  taxes.  But  sensible  Amer- 
icans regard  it  as  necessary  that  taxes  should 
be  paid,  and  good  Americans  pay  them  with 
a  good  grace.  However,  military  service  in  Ger- 
many is  by  no  means  as  unpopular  as  is  the  pay- 
ment of  taxes  in  America.  From  a  wide  ex- 
perience, and  with  men  of  many  classes,  I  am 
forced  to  conclude  that  the  service  is  not  un- 
popular with  young  men  generally.  All  classes 
are  obliged  to  serve,  so  that  no  one  feels  that 
he  is  discriminated  against.  Nor  are  the  years 
of  service,  apparently,  generally  disliked.  Stupid 
men,  lazy  men.  and  men  to  whom  discipline  of 
95 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

any  kind  is  distasteful,  of  course  suffer  hard- 
ship. The  American  tramp  would  find  his  years 
in  the  barracks  unendurable. 

Young  Germans  generally  seem  proud  of  hav- 
ing served.  I  have  remarked  ,in  many  instances 
that  those  who  have  been  released  from  the  duty, 
on  the  ground  of  physical  incapacity,  have  been 
ashamed  of  their  immunity.  The  army  is  not 
unpopular  with  the  masses  of  the  population. 
It  should  be  noted  that  the  size  of  the  army  is 
determined  by  vote  of  the  "Reichstag,"  and  the 
"Reichstag"  is  the  creature  of  universal  suffrage. 
The  German  nation  has  the  army  it  wants  to 
have.  It  may  or  may  not  be  misguided,  it  may 
or  may  not  allow  itself  to  be  persuaded,  but  the 
German  military  system  is  the  expression  of  its 
will  and  represents  its  judgment  of  what  is  called 
for  by  the  situation  of  the  nation. 

Is  MILITARISM  GERMAN? 

We  hear  so  much  of  German  militarism  that 

we  need  to  remind  ourselves  that  militarism  is 

by  no  means  peculiarly  German.     Neither  in  the 

size  of  its  army,  nor  in  the  presence  of  a  warlike 

96 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

spirit,  does  the  nation  enjoy  any  bad  preeminence 
above  other  European  nations.  Indeed,  it  would 
be  more  just  to  maintain  that  the  opposite  is  the 
case. 

The  German  army  does  not  compare  in  size 
with  that  of  Russia,  and,  for  forty-four  years 
after  the  foundation  of  the  Empire,  it  showed 
itself  to  be  a  very  peaceful  force.  During  this 
period  the  Russian  army  has  constantly  been  used 
as  a  weapon  of  aggression,  Russia's  last  great  war 
— that  with  her  present  ally  Japan — being 
brought  about  by  the  seizure  of  Chinese  territory 
to  which  she  had  no  other  claim  than  the  desire 
to  possess  it.  Russia's  invasion  of  the  territories 
surrounding  her  can  only  be  compared  to  the 
inundations  caused  by  a  rising  tide.  She  is  al- 
ways aggressive,  and  needs  a  strong  bulwark  to 
hold  her  back. 

Nor  is  France  without  an  army.  She  has,  in 
fact,  an  army  approximately  equal  to  that  of 
Germany,  and  yet  her  population  is  less  than 
two- thirds  as  great,  and  her  geographical  posi- 
tion is  a  more  fortunate  one,  for  she  can  be  ef- 
fectively attacked  by  land  on  only  one  side.  And 
97 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

if  we  use  the  term  "militarism"  to  indicate,  not 
the  existence  of  a  great  army,  but  the  presence 
of  a  warlike  spirit,  we  must  surely  recognize 
that  public  opinion  in  France  has  been  for  dec- 
ades vastly  more  militaristic  than  in  Germany. 
The  latter  nation  has  had  no  desire  to  attack 
France,  whereas  the  present-day  Frenchman  has 
been  brought  up  to  cherish  the  thought  of  a 
revenge  to  be  attained  with  the  cooperation  of 
Russia. 

Finally,  what  shall  we  say  of  British  militar- 
ism? Here  let  us  use  a  new  word.  A  man  may 
defend  himself  with  a  knife,  with  a  revolver, 
or  with  some  other  weapon.  And  he  may  justly 
be  regarded  as  aggressive  if  he  attacks  his 
neighbors,  whether  near  or  remote,  with  any 
weapon  he  regards  as  most  convenient  and  most 
effective.  The  English  are  a  practical  people, 
and  they  have  provided  themselves  most  abun- 
dantly with  the  weapons  which  they  find  that  they 
can  use  most  effectively.  In  other  words,  Eng- 
land has  cultivated  "navalism"  as  no  other  na- 
tion has  cultivated  it,  and  that  for  generations 
past.  We  are  all  so  accustomed  to  this  phenome- 

98 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

non  that  it  excites  little  comment  even  among 
those  who  declaim  against  militarism.  That  a  little 
island  off  the  coast  of  Europe  should  be  able  to 
hold  in  subjection  vast  populations  in  Asia,  and, 
entering  into  an  alliance  with  an  Asiatic  power 
which  has  also,  in  quite  recent  years,  embarked 
upon  a  career  of  navalism,  should  dictate  to 
other  nations  the  terms  upon  which  men  may 
be  allowed  to  live  and  to  trade  in  the  Pacific, 
appears  to  be  taken  rather  as  a  matter  of  course. 

I  think  no  man  in  his  senses  would  maintain 
that  navalism  differs  from  militarism  in  being 
only  a  weapon  of  defense.  The  British  Empire 
was  not  built  up  by  a  fleet  that  confined  itself 
to  patrolling  the  coast  of  England,  nor  did  the 
Japanese  take  Korea  by  staying  at  home  and 
defending  their  own  ports.  It  is  worthy  of  re- 
mark that  no  nation  is  as  militaristic  as  Great 
Britain  is  "navalistic."  There  is  none  that  de- 
liberately holds  before  itself  the  ideal  of  an 
army  larger  by  ten  per  cent,  than  the  armies  of 
any  two  other  powers. 

I  speak  of  the  militarism  of  the  nations  above- 
mentioned,  not  at  all  in  a  spirit  of  criticism, 
99 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

for  here  I  wish  to  express  no  opinion  at  all, 
whether  favorable  or  the  reverse,  on  the  subject 
of  armaments.  I  only  wish  to  emphasize  the 
fact  that  militarism,  or  its  equivalent,  is  by  no 
means  the  peculiar  possession. of  Germany.  To 
what,  then,  is  the  curious  circumstance  due,  that 
we  should  hear  so  much  about  German  militar- 
ism, rather  than  about  that  of  some  other  na- 
tion? And  why  should  we  Americans,  of  all 
men,  trouble  ourselves  about  it?  The  peculiar 
form  of  militarism  which  I  have  called  "naval- 
ism"  is  far  more  menacing  to  us,  isolated  as  we 
are,  than  is  the  land-militarism  which  obtains 
in  so  many  of  the  European  countries. 

WHY  IT  is  CALLED  GERMAN 

I  can  discover  only  three  reasons  why  militar- 
ism should  so  often  be  spoken  of  as  if  it  were 
"made  in  Germany." 

The  first  is  that  United  Germany  is  a  young 

nation,  and  has,  as  a  result  of  its  union,  developed 

a  remarkable  strength.     The  country  has  been 

prospering  as  our  own  great  land  has  been  pros- 

IOQ 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

paring.  No  one  in  Europe  has  as  yet  grown 
accustomed  to  the  thought  of  German  domina- 
tion in  any  sphere.  For  a  hundred  years  men 
have  been  familiarized  with  British  "spheres  of 
influence,"  "protectorates"  and  "annexations." 
If  Germany  held  Gibraltar,  it  would  not  only  be 
an  insult  to  Spain,  but  an  intolerable  tyranny 
set  up  at  the  gates  of  the  Mediterranean.  If 
Germany  held  Malta,  Italy  would  feel  deeply 
wronged.  If  Germany  first  occupied,  and  then 
annexed,  Egypt,  taking  possession  of  the  Suez 
Canal,  it  would  be  regarded  as  more  than  a 
wrong  to  Turkey;  it  would  be  a  selfish  occupa- 
tion of  the  public  highway  between  Europe  and 
Asia.  What  men  are  accustomed  to  they  rarely 
feel  to  be  much  of  a  burden,  and  the  rise  of  the 
German  nation  is  something  to  which  Europe 
has  not  had  time  to  grow  accustomed.  I  may 
say  that  the  great  increase  in  the  wealth,  power 
and  influence  of  our  United  States  within  the 
last  generation  has  aroused  much  the  same  feel- 
ing in  Europe  as  the  rise  of  Germany.  As,  how- 
ever, it  seems  rather  hopeless  to  do  anything 
to  a  land  as  big  as  ours  and  situated  as  ours  is, 
101 


,  GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

men  adjust  themselves  to  the  situation  with  the 
best  grace  at  their  command. 

The  second  reason  for  calling  militarism  Ger- 
man is  the  admirable  organization  and  great 
efficiency  of  the  German  army.  The  size  of  the 
force  has  little  to  do  with  it.  As  has  been  pointed 
out,  the  Russian  army  is  vastly  larger,  but  it 
is,  like  most  things  in  Russia,  sadly  inefficient, 
so  we  hear  little  of  Russian  militarism,  and  it 
occurs  to  no  one  to  start  a  propaganda  to  re- 
lieve Russians  of  its  "yoke."  But  if  German 
efficiency  makes  militarism  German,  it  ought 
to  make  all  sorts  of  other  things  German,  too, 
for  the  same  efficiency  shows  itself  everywhere. 
It  is  apparent  in  agriculture,  in  forestry,  in  the 
chemical  industries,  in  the  organization  of  the 
system  of  education,  in  social  legislation,  in  the 
administration  of  municipalities.  Are  all  these 
things  peculiarly  German? 

The  third  and  last  reason  that  there  is  so 
much  talk  of  German  militarism  is  that  Germany 
has,  within  the  last  decades,  built  up  a  fleet.  It 
is  not  a  fleet  of  overwhelming  proportions,  but 
it  is,  like  the  army,  efficient.  Such  as  it  is,  it  has 
102 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

caused  no  little  anxiety  to  Germany's  neighbor 
across  the  North  Sea.  For  generations  this 
neighbor  has  felt  secure  in  the  possession  of  the 
control  of  the  waterways  of  the  world.  A 
cloud  bigger  than  a  man's  hand  has  appeared 
on  the  horizon,  and  it  has  made  a  sensation. 
From  travel  in  various  European  countries,  from 
conversations  with  Europeans  of  many  national- 
ities, and  from  a  perusal  of  the  European  news- 
papers, I  should  be  inclined  to  attribute  to  this 
third  and  last  reason  no  small  share  in  the  at- 
tention which  has  been  drawn  to  German  mili- 
tarism. 

SUMMARY 

We  see,  thus,  that  the  German  army  is,  in 
reality,  a  citizen-army,  the  number  of  those  who 
are  soldiers  by  profession  being  relatively  small. 
The  "nation  in  arms"  is  not  a  nation  in  arms, 
but  is  a  nation  trained  to  bear  arms  in  case  of 
need.  Undoubtedly  the  demanding  of  so  long  a 
period  of  service  from  its  able-bodied  citizens 
is  a  burden  to  the  nation;  and  I  should  think 
no  sensible  German  would  attempt  to  defend 
103 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

it  save  on  the  score  of  necessity.  It  is  not, 
however,  a  burden  which  appears  to  have  inter- 
fered seriously  with  the  economic  welfare  of 
Germany. 

The  soldiers  we  see  in  Germany  are  not  sol- 
diers by  profession.  Soon  they  will  go  back  to 
their  homes  and  take  up  the  peaceful  occupations 
which  are  to  fill  their  lives.  Germany's  real  oc- 
cupation is  not  war.  Her  attention  is  given  to 
agriculture,  manufactures,  commerce,  education, 
science,  literature,  music,  painting,  and  to  the 
working  out  of  a  social  organization  that  guaran- 
tees to  the  masses  of  her  population  the  enjoy- 
ment of  those  goods  reserved,  in  some  countries 
accounted  civilized,  rather  for  the  few. 

In  this  her  real  work  Germany  has  been  emi- 
nently successful.  It  is  a  work  carried  on  by 
her  citizen-soldiers.  It  is  not  easy  to  draw  the 
line  in  Germany  between  those  who  are  connected 
with  the  army  and  those  who  are  not.  In  a 
certain  sense  of  the  words,  almost  all  able-bodied 
men  belong  to  the  army,  if  they  are  not  too 
young  or  too  old.  This  does  not  prevent  them 
from  being  civilians,  and  doing,  with  the  in- 
104 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

dustry  and  thoroughness   characteristic   of   the 
Germans,  the  work  of  civilians. 

Still,  most  of  them  have,  I  think,  a  certain 
pride  in  their  connection  with  the  army.  There 
are  differences  of  opinion  in  Germany,  as  there 
are  with  us;  but  the  mass  of  the  Germans  regard 
their  army  as  a  necessity,  and  it  is  not  unpopular. 
Nevertheless,  the  German  repudiates  with  very 
good  reason  the  imputation  that  militarism  is 
peculiarly  German,  or  that  his  countrymen  are 
by  nature  aggressive  and  predatory.  The  Ger- 
man makes  a  good  soldier  on  occasion,  but  he  is 
equally  good  as  a  clerk  or  as  a  professor.  He 
strikes  the  foreigner  as  filling  his  leisure  time 
with  the  mildest  of  pleasures — listening  to  music, 
taking  walks  in  the  country,  feeding  the  birds 
in  the  public  gardens.  These  are  not  the  occu- 
pations of  the  professional  warrior. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  PROFIT  AND  LOSS  OF  MILITARISM 

IT  is  decidedly  a  loss  to  spend  time  and  money 
in  acquiring  that  of  which  one  has  no  need. 
That  which  they  pressingly  need  men  of  all  na- 
tions and  all  classes  make  earnest  efforts  to  se- 
cure. The  American  on  his  first  visit  to  Europe 
is  impressed  with  the  facility  shown  by  the 
waiter  in  hotel  and  restaurant  in  speaking  a 
variety  of  tongues  which  he  himself  either  cannot 
speak  at  all,  or  which  he  has,  by  infinite  effort 
and  with  the  aid  of  masters,  learned  to  speak 
hesitatingly.  It  is  not  that  the  European  waiter 
is  a  cultivated  man.  It  is  that  the  conditions 
of  his  life  make  it  necessary  for  him  to  be  able 
to  converse  in  their  own  tongue  with  men  of 
many  nations,  and  he  travels  from  land  to  land, 
working  his  way  and  learning  what  is  a  part 
1 06 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

of  his  trade.  To  us  the  speaking  of  several 
languages  is  an  elegant  accomplishment,  not  a 
necessity  of  life,  not  even  a  great  convenience. 
Those  who  are  in  a  position  to  allow  themselves 
such  accomplishments  may  devote  themselves 
to  them.  Our  world  speaks  English,  and  the 
minority,  to  whom  it  is  not  the  mother-tongue, 
must  adjust  themselves  to  our  convenience. 

So  it  is  in  every  field  of  human  endeavor.  The 
amount  of  effort  it  is  worth  while  to  put  forth 
must  be  measured  by  the  gains  which  are  to  be 
expected,  or  by  the  evils  which  are  to  be  warded 
off.  An  excess  of  effort  is  an  unwarranted  ex- 
penditure; a  deficiency  may  result  in  a  loss  out 
of  proportion  to  the  immediate  gain  which  has 
been  made.  To  be  sure,  any  man  may  make  a 
miscalculation,  and  may  suffer  loss  in  spite  of 
his  best  endeavors.  And  with  the  justice  of  his 
calculations  we  may  or  may  not  be  in  sympathy. 

MILITARISM  IN  GERMANY  AND  IN  AMERICA 

We  Americans  have  heard  a  great  deal  of  the 
burden  of  German  militarism.     We  have  been 
taught  that  it  is  a  crushing  weight  to  Germany, 
107 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

and  we  have  heard  from  various  sources  that 
it  is  a  menace  to  European  civilization. 

Of  what  the  word  really  stands  for  I  think 
most  of  us  have  no  very  intelligent  notion,  for 
we  are  imperfectly  acquainted;  as  is  unavoidable, 
with  the  conditions  that  prevail  in  Europe.  We 
live  under  conditions  so  different  that  it  is  dif- 
ficult for  us  to  realize  the  significance  even  of 
facts  that  are  truly  brought  before  us,  and  facts 
are  not  always  truly  brought  before  us.  Why 
should  there  be  militarism  of  any  sort  in  Ger- 
many? At  any  rate,  why,  if  it  exists  at  all, 
should  it  not  be  intermittent,  as  with  us?  In 
America  we  have  brief  attacks  of  militarism,  as 
at  the  time  of  the  Spanish-American  War,  or 
when  there  is  talk  of  a  possible  war  with  Mexico 
or  with  Japan;  but  militarism,  as  a  permanent 
condition  of  things,  does  not  exist.  And  if 
it  is  not  to  be  met  with  in  the  Great  Republic, 
why  should  it  exist  in  Germany  ?  The  American 
who  is  not  acquainted  with  Germany  and  with 
the  position  in  which  she  finds  herself  can  find 
no  answer  to  this  question.  An  answer  is,  how- 
ever, not  far  to  seek. 

1 08 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

THE  MILITARY  SPIRIT  IN  GERMANY 

In  discussing  the  military  spirit  in  Germany  I 
cannot  do  better  than  to  borrow  a  little  from 
papers  which  I  printed  some  months  ago.  A  fur- 
ther experience  has  only  confirmed  my  impres- 
sions. 

The  Germans  are  a  peace-loving  people.  We 
Americans  know  that  there  is  no  element  in  our 
own  population  more  orderly,  industrious  and 
law-abiding,  than  the  German  element.  The  Ger- 
man in  Germany  has  the  same  characteristics. 
The  land  is  an  orderly  land,  and  the  population 
is  enlightened,  disciplined  and  educated  to  re- 
spect the  law.  No  one  who  lives  among  the 
Germans  and  learns  to  know  them  can  feel  that 
he  has  to  do  with  an  aggressive  and  predatory 
people.  And  those  who  spent  in  Germany,  as 
I  did,  the  month  of  August,  1914,  mingling  freely 
in  the  crowds  on  the  streets  during  the  two  weeks 
of  the  mobilization,  when  the  public  excitement 
was  the  greatest,  can  only  wonder  that  a  people 
so  peaceable  and  self -restrained  should  be  capable 
of  the  daring  courage  which  has  since  stormed 
109 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

fortresses,  and  has  gathered  laurels  on  land  and 
sea  in  a  way  which  compels  the  admiration  of  all 
who  have  not  been  kept  in  ignorance  of  the  facts. 
Yet  this  orderly  and  peace-loving  people,  a 
people  which  has  not  only  loved  peace,  but  which 
for  more  than  forty  years  kept  the  peace,  while 
other  nations  carried  on  wars,  a  people  that  has, 
in  the  pursuit  of  the  arts  of  peace,  grown  ex- 
ceedingly rich  and  prosperous — this  people  has 
all  the  while  trained  the  mass  of  its  male  popu- 
lation to  be  prepared  for  war  in  case  of  emer- 
gency, and  has  built  up  a  formidable  fleet. 
Finally,  it  has  gone  to  war  against  what  seemed, 
at  first,  to  be  overwhelming  odds,  and  the  rising 
has  been  not  that  of  a  class,  but  of  a  nation. 
Neither  the  emperor,  nor  the  government,  nor 
the  officers  in  the  army  and  the  navy  were 
responsible  for  the  public  sentiment  which  made 
this  movement  in  Germany  a  national  uprising. 
Even  the  Social-Democrats  and  those  of  a  kin- 
dred way  of  thinking,  men  who  have  never  been 
accused  of  servility  to  the  emperor  or  the 
government,  nor  suspected  of  a  weakness  for 
army  and  navy,  stood  by  their  country  to  a  man, 
no 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

and  fought  bravely  and  died  without  a  complaint 
at  the  front.  In  the  past  months  I  have  not  met 
with  a  German  of  any  class  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest,  who  has  not  been  heart  and  soul  for 
the  war.  I  have  heard  no  laments  from  those 
who  have  sent  their  sons;  I  have  heard  no  crit- 
icism of  their  country  from  those  who  have  been 
bereaved,  and  I  know  many  such. 

A  strange  phenomenon  to  be  observed  among  a 
peaceable  and  industrious  race,  a  race  as  devoted 
to  the  cultivation  of  the  sciences  and  arts  as  it 
is  to  industrial  pursuits ;  a  civilized  race,  not  one 
living  in  a  state  of  barbarism  and  to  which  war 
is  welcome,  a  diversion  rather  than  a  calamity. 
To  the  American  who  cannot  put  himself  in  the 
place  of  the  German,  it  is  an  inexplicable  phenom- 
enon. What  possessed  the  Germans  to  prepare 
for  war  on  a  great  scale?  What  drove  them  to 
fight  even  against  a  world  in  arms,  and  to  stake 
their  all  in  the  gigantic  contest? 

THE  REAL  SITUATION  OF  THE  GERMAN 

Let  me  help  the  American  to  put  himself  in  the 
place  of  the  German.    We  Americans  inhabit  a 
in 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

land  more  than  four-fifths  the  size  of  all  Europe 
including  Russia.  It  is  fifteen  times  the  size  of 
the  German  Empire,  and  has  only  about  one 
hundred  millions  of  inhabitants,  so  that  we  are 
in  the  position  of  a  family  occupied  in  growing 
up  to  fill  a  large  and  well- furnished  house.  It 
does  not  cross  our  mind  that  our  neighbors, 
either  near  or  remote,  can  seriously  frighten  us. 
Who  could  invade  us  with  any  hope  of  success? 
Who  could  threaten  our  national  existence,  or 
subject  us  to  anything  approaching  a  state  of 
bondage  ? 

To  the  north  of  us  is  Canada — an  empty  house, 
a  country  with  only  seven  million  inhabitants, 
which  could  not  hurt  us  even  if  it  wished  to  do 
so.  To  the  south  is  Mexico,  which  can  make 
trouble  within  her  own  borders  and  can  cause 
some  Americans  to  regret  their  investments  there, 
but  which  is  no  more  formidable  to  the  United 
States  than  an  unruly  class  in  a  school.  To  the 
west  and  to  the  east  we  have  the  broad  sea. 
Japan  might  quarrel  with  us,  and  might  be  a  detri- 
ment to  some  of  our  foreign  trade.  But  Japan  is 
far  from  us,  and  we  know  very  well  that  she  is 
112 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

too  poor,  and  will  be  long  too  poor,  to  carry  on  a 
long-continued  war.  At  the  most,  Japan  can  only 
annoy  us.  That  European  states  should,  singly 
or  combined,  crush  us,  is  a  contingency  too  re- 
mote to  fall  within  our  horizon.  As  much  of  an 
army  and  as  much  of  a  fleet  as  we  think  neces- 
sary to  our  purposes  we  freely  call  into  being, 
nor  does  it  occur  to  us  to  ask  the  permission  of 
any  other  power  before  increasing  either.  Why 
should  Mr.  Carnegie  fill  his  house  with  bread,  as 
a  provision  against  a  possible  famine  in  the  State 
of  New  York?  Why  should  Mr.  Rockefeller  store 
gold  and  silver  coins  in  a  stocking  and  hide  them 
in  his  mattress?  The  occupant  of  a  Nebraska 
farm  who  should  build  a  seaworthy  boat,  in 
order  to  be  ready  for  all  emergencies,  we  should 
regard  as  out  of  his  mind.  We  Americans  do 
what  seems  to  us  prudent  and  practical  under 
the  conditions  which  prevail  in  America,  and  we 
have  no  more  need  for  the  German  army  than  has 
a  Philadelphia  Quaker,  at  his  Yearly  Meeting, 
for  a  revolver.  What  we  think  we  really  need, 
however,  we  set  about  with  much  energy  to  ob- 
tain. 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

But  suppose  that  our  territory  were  not  too 
large  to  be  invaded.    Suppose  that,  to  the  north 
of  us,  we  had  a  great  land  with  a  vast  population 
of  more  than  one  hundred  millions,  under  an 
autocratic  government,  boasting,  even  in  time  of 
peace,  an  immense  army.    Suppose  that  this  land 
had  for  many  decades  shown  a  restless  activity 
in  extending  its  borders  at  the  expense  of  its 
neighbors,  where  it  had  found  them  too  weak  to 
resist  aggression.     Suppose  that  its  population 
was  upon  a  plane  of  civilization   far  less  ad- 
vanced than  our  own;  so  little  advanced,  indeed, 
that  the  overwhelming  majority  were  compelled 
to  live  in  what  civilized  men  must  regard  as  a 
condition  of  distressing  misery,  ignorant,  dumb, 
passive,  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  a  bureaucratic 
class  which  would  not  be  the  first  to  suffer  from 
the  added  miseries  entailed  by  a  state  of  war. 
Suppose  that  we  had  information  that  this  neigh- 
bor of  ours  had  for  some  time  been  massing  its 
troops  upon  its  borders  in  a  way  that  could  only 
be  interpreted  as  a  menace. 

Again,  let  us  suppose  that  we  had  to  the  south 
of  us,  not  Mexico,  but  a  rich,  resourceful,  and 
114 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

highly  civilized  nation  of  forty  million  inhabi- 
tants, with  a  large  army,  formidable,  well-drilled, 
and  well-equipped  with  all  that  is  necessary  to 
carry  on  successfully  modern  warfare.  Suppose 
that  this  nation  had  for  forty  years  made  no 
secret  of  the  fact  that  it  was  animated  by  a 
bitter  sentiment  of  resentment  against  us  and 
hoped  some  day  to  have  its  revenge.  Suppose 
that  it  stood  in  relations  with  the  power  above 
described  and  also  with  a  third  power  to  be 
mentioned  below,  such  that  we  had  reason  to 
fear  that  they  might  act  in  concert  to  our  detri- 
ment. 

Now  let  us  extend  our  suppositions  to  cover 
the  case  of  this  third  power.  Suppose  that 
we  did  not  have  the  broad  sea  upon  our  borders 
to  east  and  west,  with  the  trade  routes  of  the 
world  open  to  us,  but  that  there  existed  a  third 
power  so  fortunately  situated  as  to  be  inac- 
cessible by  land  and  yet  in  direct  control  of  our 
only  available  outlets  to  the  sea.  Suppose  that 
our  foreign  commerce  was  far  more  important 
to  our  prosperity  than  it  is — that  our  prosperity 
was  in  large  measure  based  upon  our  export 
"5 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

trade.  Suppose  that  the  third  power  in  ques- 
tion was  rich  enough  to  maintain  a  navy  equal 
to  our  own  combined  with  that  of  any  other 
great  power  with  which  we  might  contract  an 
alliance,  and  openly  avowed-  its  intention  to 
retain  control  of  the  sea  by  maintaining  this 
proportion.  Suppose  that  its  control  of  the  sea 
even  made  it  possible  for  this  power  to  cut  inter- 
national cables,  and  only  let  through  to  the  world 
so  much  regarding  what  we  did  or  what  others 
did  to  us  as  seemed  to  it  in  accordance  with  its 
policy.  Suppose  that  this  power  had  an  "under- 
standing" with  the  two  described  above,  and  we 
had  reason  to  fear  that  it  might  join  them  should 
they  attack  us. 

THE  GERMAN  DEFENSE  OF  MILITARISM 

How  would  we  Americans  accept  such  a  situa- 
tion? I  know  my  Americans.  I  have  lived 
through  the  Spanish  War,  and  have  seen  a  univer- 
sity emptied  of  professors  and  students  eager  to 
fight  under  the  flag  of  their  country.  Yet  the 
Spanish  War  was  to  America,  a  very  small  and 
116 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

unimportant  affair.  Spain  could  no  more  crush 
the  United  States  and  reduce  our  country  to  vir- 
tual subjection  than  it  could  stay  the  moon  in  its 
revolutions.  Were  our  land  really  in  danger,  or 
did  we  believe  our  land  to  be  in  danger,  what 
would  happen  in  the  United  States?  Would  we 
be  peaceable  and  patient,  anxious  to  make  con- 
cessions, willing  to  give  up  territory,  eager  to 
limit,  under  compulsion,  our  army  and  navy? 
Would  we  humbly  declare  our  readiness  to  step 
out  of  the  race  for  industrial  success,  or  to  ask 
permission  of  another  power  for  access  to  the 
trade  routes  of  the  world?  I  know  my  Ameri- 
cans, and  such  questions  strike  me  as  broadly 
humorous. 

Germans,  in  defending  their  militarism — they 
dislike  the  word,  by  the  way,  for  they  claim  to  be 
a  peaceful  people  forced  to  take  an  attitude  of 
self-defense — Germans,  in  defending  their  mili- 
tarism, argue  just  as  we  Americans  would  argue, 
were  we  in  the  same  position.  Those  of  us  who 
come  much  in  contact  with  educated  and  intelli- 
gent Germans  have  heard  them  reason  about  as 

follows : 

117 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

"Why  in  the  world  should  we,  above  other 
peoples,  be  asked  to  deprive  ourselves  of  a  means 
of  defense  that  seems  to  us  essential  to  our  wel- 
fare, and  even  to  our  national  existence?  We 
have  shown  abundantly  that  we  wish  to  be  al- 
lowed to  carry  on  our  industries  in  peace.  But 
our  great  neighbor  to  the  north  is  not  so 
civilized  that  it  regards  a  state  of  war  with  ab- 
horrence. In  fact  it  is  always  at  war  with  some- 
one, and  it  is  a  constant  menace  to  us.  Our 
neighbor  to  the  west  is  civilized,  but  is  embit- 
tered, and  has  for  a  generation  made  no  secret 
of  a  hostile  intent.  The  private  person  who  lives 
between  two  hostile  families  may  appeal  to  the 
police  to  keep  them  in  order.  But  where  is  the 
police  to  whom  Germany  may  appeal  to  compel 
Russia  to  be  civilized  and  France  to  be  peaceable  ? 
There  exists  as  yet  no  such  police. 

"Moreover,  we  beg  you  to  remember  that  the 
real  reason  of  the  outcry  which  has  been  raised 
over  our  militarism  is  not  that  we  have  main- 
tained an  army,  but  rather  that  we  have  built  a 
fleet.  A  nation  not  menaced  as  we  are,  and 
which,  hence,  has  only  wanted  enough  of  an 
118 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

army  to  hold  in  subjection  nations  which  it  has 
conquered  in  various  parts  of  the  earth,  has  filled 
the  world  with  clamor  because  we  have  built  a 
fleet  about  half  as  big  as  its  own.  It  does  not 
want  other  nations  to  sail  to  and  fro  upon  the 
sea  as  it  does,  for  it  regards  the  sea  as  its  own 
peculiar  property.  What  we  Germans  cannot 
understand  is  by  what  reasoning  it  can  be 
proved  that  English  trade  needs  to  be  pro- 
tected by  an  English  fleet,  but  that  German 
trade  should  not  be  protected  by  a  German 
fleet  at  all. 

"And,  lastly,  we  beg  you  to  bear  in  mind  that 
it  is  not  the  man  to  whom  a  state  of  peace  is 
peculiarly  profitable  that  seeks  pretexts  for 
breaking  the  peace.  During  the  past  forty  years 
Germany  has  been  exceedingly  prosperous.  The 
Germans  seem  especially  adapted  for  the  attain- 
ment of  success  by  dint  of  industry  and  intelli- 
gence and  along  the  path  of  peaceful  competition. 
Would  it  ever  occur  to  us  to  undertake  the  thank- 
less task  of  invading  Russia?  As  to  France,  we 
want  the  French  to  be  our  allies  against  the  un- 
civilized East.  And  why  should  Germany  attack 
119 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

England?  German  trade  has,  under  existing 
conditions,  been  overtaking  that  of  England  by 
leaps  and  bounds,  and  Germans  would  like  noth- 
ing better  than  a  continuance  of  such  peaceful 
conditions.  Peace  has  not  seemed  equally  profit- 
able to  other  nations,  and  that  is  the  real  cause  of 
the  present  terrible  war.  War  is  a  scourge  to 
us  as  to  other  nations,  but  there  is  something 
that  would  be  still  worse.  That  something  is 
the  delivery  of  Germany  into  the  hands  of  those 
who  would  crush  her  with  a  view  to  their 
own  profit.'* 

In  other  words,  the  Germans,  in  defending 
their  militarism,  point  out  that  they  kept  their 
very  efficient  army,  for  nearly  half  a  century,  as 
a  weapon  of  defense  exclusively,  showing  no  dis- 
position to  trespass  upon  the  territories  of  their 
neighbors.  They  maintain  that  the  Germany  of 
to-day  is  a  commercial  nation,  has  interests  in 
many  quarters  of  the  globe,  and  should,  there- 
fore, have  a  fleet,  if  any  nation  should  have  a 
fleet.  That  a  nation  of  seventy  millions,  with 
important  commercial  interests  to  guard,  should 
be  forced  to  creep  in  and  out  of  the  English 
120 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

Channel  under  the  condition  of  having  the  per- 
mission of  a  smaller  nation,  they  find  intolerable. 
They  say  that  we  Americans,  who  are  eminently 
a  practical  people,  have  thought  it  worth  while  to 
build  a  fleet  which  is  very  formidable,  and  yet 
no  one  imagines  that,  even  were  we  wholly  cut 
off  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  we  could  be 
starved  into  submission.  It  has  not  been  so  clear 
to  all  that  Germany  could  maintain  herself  were 
she  denied  all  access  to  the  sea. 

If  any  German  has  .'heretofore  had  doubts 
whether,  for  her  access  to  the  sea,  it  might  be 
acquiesced  in  that  Germany  be  left  dependent 
upon  the  good-will  of  some  other  nation,  those 
doubts  have  recently  been  laid  finally  to  rest. 
In  February,  1915,  the  importance  to  Germany 
of  a  free  communication  with  foreign  lands  was 
brought  home  to  me  in  a  very  peculiar  way,  and 
one  which  impressed  me  even  more  than  the 
precautions  the  imperial  government  was  com- 
pelled to  take  to  insure  my  having  a  supply  of 
bread.  As  a  member  of  the  governing  board  of 
the  American  Red  Cross  Hospital  in  Munich,  I 

received  a  letter  informing  me  that  our  National 
121 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

Red  Cross  in  Washington  was  unable  to  send  us 
hospital  supplies  without  obtaining  the  permis- 
sion of  the  British  Embassy  in  Washington.  The 
Germans,  of  course,  feel,  in  the  face  of  such  a 
situation,  about  as  we  should,  did  we  have  a 
desperate  struggle  upon  our  hands  and  multi- 
tudes of  wounded  to  care  for,  and  were  we  de- 
pendent, in  order  to  obtain  medicines  and  band- 
ages, upon  the  consent  of  the  Japanese  Ambassa- 
dor in  London. 

Under  the  existing  circumstances,  Germany 
has,  for  maintaining  a  strong  army,  imperative 
reasons.  They  are  reasons  which  would  fall 
away  of  themselves,  were  Germany  situated  as 
we  are,  but  Germany  is  not  situated  as  we  are. 
And  the  Germans  appear  to  have  reasons  at 
least  as  imperative  for  maintaining  such  a  fleet 
as  will  secure  their  free  access  to  the  sea.  Both 
army  and  fleet  seem  to  be  essential,  if  Germany 
is  to  remain  a  free  and  independent  nation. 
Whether  it  is  or  is  not  desirable  that  she  should 
remain  a  free  and  independent  nation  is  a  ques- 
tion to  be  answered  according  to  one's  point  of 
yiew.  We  Americans,  were  we  the  nation  in 

122 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

question,  would  not  regard  the  matter  as  a  sub- 
ject for  debate  at  all. 

THE  COSTS  OF  UNION 

We  Americans,  between  1861  and  1865,  paid 
very  heavily  for  the  privilege  of  remaining  one 
nation.  Business  was  paralyzed ;  men  were  taken 
from  their  wonted  peaceful  occupations;  blood 
and  treasure  were  poured  out  without  stint. 
There  are  few  Americans  now  who  do  not  think 
that  the  gain  was  worth  the  sacrifice. 

The  Germans  know  that,  during  the  long  peace 
which  endured  from  1871  to  1914,  they  paid 
rather  heavily  for  the  privilege  of  maintaining 
their  union.  The  mass  of  the  able-bodied  males 
among  them  have  been  compelled  to  interrupt 
their  peaceful  vocations  for  from  one  to  three 
years.  A  certain  number  of  men  have  been 
compelled  to  devote  their  whole  lives  to  the  art 
of  war.  And  the  direct  expense  of  maintaining 
the  Empire  has  been  greater  than  was  at  first 
contemplated.  The  army  and  the  navy,  al- 
though maintained  at  an  expense  to  the  citizen 
considerably  less  than  that  paid  in  certain  neigh- 
123 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

boring  states,  have  cost  great  sums,  nevertheless, 
and  these  sums  have  come  from  the  pockets  of 
the  tax-payers.  There  have  been  those  who 
have  asked  themselves  seriously  whether  such 
sums  might  not  with  prudence -be  considerably 
reduced.  Some  have  advocated  drastic  reforms, 
and  a  general  reduction  in  expenditures. 

THE  COSTS  OF  DISUNION 

Why  should  not  the  German  states  content 
themselves  with  a  looser  union,  if,  indeed,  they 
wish  to  remain  united  at  all?  Why  should  they 
bear  the  burden  of  empire  and  go  to  an  enormous 
expense  to  defend  the  confederation  by  land  and 
by  sea? 

To  this  question  the  history  of  Germany  fur- 
nishes a  more  than  sufficient  answer.  We  Ameri- 
cans, happy  people,  have  no  such  painful  and 
humiliating  past  to  look  back  upon. 

The  ancient  Empire,  although  it  was  not 
formally  dissolved  until  1806,  was,  for  centuries 
preceding,  little  more  than  a  venerable  shadow. 
It  had  extended  its  palsied  hand  over  some  three 
hundred  territorial  sovereignties,  which  it  could 
124 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

neither  control  nor  protect.  German  principality 
warred  against  German  principality,  and  it  was 
the  occupation  of  foreign  rulers  to  foment  dis- 
cords among  the  German  states  and  to  profit  by 
them.  Germany,  more  than  any  land,  has  suffered 
from  predatory  expeditions.  Any  excuse  was  suf- 
ficient to  give  rise  to  disorders — the  ambition  of 
a  prince,  the  desire  for  booty,  the  expressed  in- 
tention to  promote  the  interests  of  a  given  form 
of  religious  faith.  The  Thirty  Years'  War, 
waged  largely  by  undisciplined  bands  for  the 
sake  of  plunder,  found  Germany  inhabited  by 
twenty  million  inhabitants,  and,  with  unheard  of 
cruelty,  brought  down  the  population  to  about 
one- fourth  of  that  number.  It  was  the  reign  of 
anarchy ;  starving  men  were  reduced  to  cannibal- 
ism; civilization  was  destroyed.  The  petty 
princes  were  not  slow  to  profit  by  the  helpless- 
ness of  their  subjects  and  their  rule  became  more 
arbitrary. 

Such  pictures  are  too  distressing  to  dwell  upon, 
but  they  are  burned  into  the  memory  of  the  Ger- 
man. And  long  after  this  melancholy  period 
Germany  remained  -disunited,  helpless,  and  a 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

prey  to  humiliations.  The  new  constitution  of 
Germany,  as  determined,  after  the  fall  of  Na- 
poleon, by  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  in  1815,  did 
not  have  to  deal  with  several  hundred  petty 
sovereignties,  for  little  more  than  a  tenth  of 
them  had  survived.  It  concerned  itself  with  the 
rights  of  a  reasonable  number  of  states.  But 
neither  at  that  time,  nor  for  many  years  after- 
wards, did  the  German  attain  to  a  real  union  and 
independence.  For  the  mass  of  the  Germans 
these  were  won  for  the  first  time  in  1871,  with 
the  founding  of  the  present  Empire. 

The  disadvantages  of  disunion  had  been  en- 
dured for  centuries.  In  some  ages  they  were 
wholly  unendurable,  and  resulted  in  indescrib- 
able misery,  as  we  have  seen.  At  other  periods 
they  showed  themselves  merely  in  political  hu- 
miliation, in  the  subordination  of  the  interests 
of  Germany  to  those  of  non-German  powers,  and 
in  great  economic  disadvantage.  Until  recently 
Germany  has  been  accounted  a  poor  country,  and 
has  been  a  poor  country.  But  its  poverty  has 
been  largely  due  to  political  causes,  not  to  those 
properly  economic. 

126 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

What  would  become  of  the  vast  internal  trade 
of  our  forty-eight  states,  were  the  United  States 
to  dissolve  into  three  hundred  practically  inde- 
pendent territorial  sovereignties,  a  prey  to  mu- 
tual jealousies,  and  carrying  on  their  affairs 
with  little  reference  to  each  other?  What  would 
become  of  it,  if,  like  the  Germany  of  1815,  we 
consisted  of  thirty-nine  states  so  loosely  welded 
together  as  to  form  no  nation,  but  rather,  a  weak 
coalition  with  more  than  one  center  of  gravity 
and  incapable  of  united  action  for  the  common 
interest?  What  would  be  our  outlook  had  we 
powerful  neighbors,  and  bonds  of  union,  politi- 
cal and  economic,  so  loose  that  rather  shrewd 
observers  should  feel  justified  in  expecting 
groups  of  our  states  to  break  away  from  us  and 
to  join  with  aliens  in  war  upon  the  other  states? 
This  was  the  situation  in  Germany  as  late  as 
1870.  In  spite  of  German  history  and  its  un- 
mistakable lessons,  Germans  were  expected  to 
array  themselves  against  Germans,  and  to  fur- 
ther the  plans  of  other  peoples. 

But  in  1871  the  mass  of  the  Germans  formed 
themselves  into  a  nation,  subordinating  the  war- 
127 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

ring  interests  of  the  dynasties  to  the  common 
good  of  the  German  people.  Once  divided  and 
weak,  regarded  by  other  nations  with  a  good- 
natured  contempt,  the  Germans  have  become 
united  and  powerful.  The  strong  command  re- 
spect, and  the  respect  is  sometimes  mingled  with 
fear.  This  is  to  be  expected;  the  Germans  have 
come  to  their  birthright  much  later  than  other 
nations,  and  men  ask  themselves  with  some  anx- 
iety what  they  intend  to  do  with  it. 

THE  PROFIT  OF  UNION 

The  union  of  the  German  states  was  only  be- 
gun in  1871.  The  adoption  of  the  constitution 
was  the  guarantee  of  real  union,  not  the  fulfil- 
ment. 

Thus,  legal  reform  was  necessary.  Nearly  half 
a  hundred  systems  of  law,  relics  from  the  past, 
obtained  in  as  many  districts  in  Germany,  and 
the  limits  of  the  districts  were  not  even  identical 
with  those  of  the  German  states.  The  division 
of  what  had  been  a  political  unit  had  left  a  given 
town  or  village  with  a  system  of  legal  usages 
out  of  harmony  with  the  legal  usages  of  the 
128 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

unit  of  which  it  found  itself  later  a  part.  There 
was  endless  confusion,  and  there  was  no  system 
of  rights  common  to  Germans  as  such.  The 
new  Federal  Government  defined  the  rights  of 
Germans  in  every  corner  of  the  Empire,  and  laid 
down  the  rules  of  civil  and  criminal  procedure 
in  all  of  the  states. 

It  reformed  the  currency,  a  reform  which  was 
imperatively  demanded.  In  1871  Germany  still 
had  seven  systems  of  currency.  The  banking 
laws  were  reformed.  The  railways  and  internal 
waterways  of  the  nation  were  rendered  service- 
able to  the  common  good.  Hamburg  and  Bre- 
men, the  two  great  German  ports  which  enjoyed 
a  practical  monopoly  of  the  foreign  commerce 
of  Germany,  were  brought  into  the  customs' 
union,  to  their  great  profit  as  well  as  to  the  profit 
of  the  country  as  a  whole.  In  short,  all  the  an- 
cient barriers  between  the  German  states  were 
broken  down,  with  just  the  results  that  might 
have  been  expected.  Germany  became  a  great 
nation  industrially  and  commercially.  She  is 
no  longer  a  poor  nation,  but  has  prospered  ex- 
ceedingly. She  is  no  longer  content  with  her 
129 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

rule  of  the  kingdom  of  the  air,  i.e.,  with  pre- 
eminence in  philosophy,  poetry  and  music,  al- 
though it  must  be  confessed  that  her  material 
successes  have  not  detracted  from  her  activities 
in  the  realm  of  the  arts  and  .sciences.  Still,  she 
claims  her  place  also  on  the  land  and  on  the  sea. 
She  wishes  to  enjoy  the  material  rewards  of  her 
skill  and  industry.  She  has  labored  with  success 
in  the  fields  proper  to  the  arts  of  peace,  and  she 
asks  for  her  just  share  in  the  profits  which  the 
world  is  earning  by  its  work. 

THE  BALANCE 

The  re-birth  of  Germany  is  a  recent  event. 
The  German  nation  is  young  and  very  vigorous. 
The  great  prosperity  which  it  has  come  to  enjoy 
is  too  much  a  matter  of  common  notoriety  to 
need  description.  I  have  myself  watched  the 
rising  tide  of  prosperity  for  thirty  years,  the  in- 
crease in  general  well-being,  the  growing  pride 
of  the  German  in  the  fact  that  he  is  a  citizen  of 
no  mean  city.  As  against  the  total  gain  to  Ger- 
many, we  must  lay  in  the  balance  the  expenses 
130 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

of  the  Empire,  including  the  expenditure  for  the 
army  and  navy.  Has  German  "militarism" 
proved  itself  a  crushing  burden?  Surely  not  to 
the  German ;  he  has  never  been  so  well  off. 

But  might  he  not  retain  all  the  benefits  of  his 
present  union  while  disbanding  his  army  and  dis- 
mantling his  fleet?  The  intelligent  German 
laughs  at  the  question.  "We  have  tried  some- 
thing like  what  you  suggest,"  he  answers,  "and 
the  result  is  recorded  in  history.  Would  you  ad- 
vise us  to  entrust  our  safety  to  the  altruism  of 
the  Russians?  The  Finns,  the  Poles,  and  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Baltic  Provinces  have  had  their 
experiences  with  that.  Would  you  suggest  our 
leaving  the  question  of  our  protection  to  the 
French?  The  French  have  taken  a  share  in  our 
history  before.  Or  would  you  think  it  more 
prudent  for  us  to  put  ourselves  under  the  pro- 
tection of  Great  Britain?" 

To  the  German,  the  question  whether  it  would 
not  be  well  for  him  to  give  up  his  present  means 
of  self-defense  sounds  as  foolish  as  would  to  the 
Englishman  the  question  whether  it  would  not 
be  a  good  thing  for  England  to  have  no  fleet  at 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

all.  Were  we  in  the  position  of  the  German 
and  had  we  his  history  behind  us,  we  should  re- 
gard the  expenses  of  the  Empire  as  a  very  small 
price  to  pay  for  an  immeasurable  gain. 


CHAPTER  VI 
IMPERIALISM 

THE  word  "Imperialism"  is  a  sufficiently 
ambiguous  one,  but  its  suggestions  are  to 
the  American,  on  the  whole,  sinister.  It  suggests 
the  brilliant,  but  ruthless  and  brutal  career  of  an 
Alexander.  It  recalls  the  subjection  of  the  civil- 
ized and  half -civilized  world  to  the  tyranny  of 
Rome.  "Roman  imperialism,"  we  read,  "had 
divided  the  world  into  master  and  slave,"  and 
the  sentiment  strikes  us  as  peculiarly  apt  and 
expressive. 

The  militarism  of  Germany  and  the  fact  that 
the  Germans  have  been  building  a  fleet  have  filled 
the  minds  of  certain  timid  and  of  many  ill-in- 
formed persons  with  ominous  forebodings.  They 
think  of  the  German,  whom  they  have  hereto- 
fore pictured  to  themselves  as  composing  songs 
and  setting  them  to  music,  dreaming  dreams 
133 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

with  the  philosophers,  spending  moon-struck 
hours  in  the  endeavor  to  read  a  meaning  into 
the  second  part  of  Goethe's  Faust,  smoking 
long  pipes  and  watering  the  flowers  in  innu- 
merable little  window-gardens — they  think  of 
this  idealistic,  and  by  no  means  formidable,  figure 
as  having  put  on  a  new  and  menacing  aspect. 
Once  they  believed  him  to  be  as  harmless  as  a 
hen,  and  like  the  hen,  a  fit  subject  to  be  plucked 
and  to  be  devoured.  Now  they  regard  him  as 
a  Hun,  bent  upon  the  conquest  of  the  world 
and  a  danger  to  mankind.  After  having  been 
caricatured  in  the  one  direction,  the  German 
must  lend  himself  to  being  caricatured  in  the 
other. 

We  have  seen,  however,  just  what  the  mili- 
tarism of  Germany  amounts  to.  It  is  a  measure 
of  defense  which  has  been  forced  upon  the 
nation,  and  it  has  put  an  end  to  a  long  chapter 
of  humiliations.  The  building  of  the  fleet  has 
been  the  natural  consequence  of  the  industrial 
development  of  the  nation,  and  the  growth  of  its 
commerce.  For  a  nation  of  seventy  millions, 
highly  civilized,  conscious  of  its  strength,  depend- 
134 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

ent  for  a  large  part  of  its  prosperity  upon  its 
foreign  trade,  to  acquiesce  tamely  in  the  com- 
plete control  of  the  sea-routes  of  the  world  by 
a  nation  of  forty-five  millions,  however  rich 
and  however  accustomed  to  the  privilege,  would 
argue  sheer  imbecility.  We  Americans  would 
not  tolerate  such  a  situation  for  a  moment. 

It  is  not  the  mere  possession  of  either  army 
or  fleet  that  gives  Germany  a  share  in  the  im- 
perialism which  characterizes  so  many  nations, 
including  our  own.  In  the  sense  in  which  I  am 
now  using  the  word,  a  sense  of  it  everywhere 
current  at  the  present  day,  it  is  not  being  an 
empire  that  makes  a  country  imperialistic.  A 
republic — let  us  say,  France — can  be  imperialistic 
just  as  well.  Imperialism  consists  in  the  con- 
trol exercised  by  a  nation  over  peoples  which 
cannot  properly  be  regarded  as  belonging  to  it 
and  truly  sharing  in  its  national  life.  Let  us 
glance  briefly  at  the  imperialism  of  several  great 
nations,  and  see  whether  Germany  is  more  im- 
perialistic than  others. 


135 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

GERMANY 

We  have  seen  that  the  German  Confederation 
is  a  voluntary  union  of  states  which  naturally 
seem  to  belong  together.  Their  populations  have, 
to  an  overwhelming  degree,  the  same  blood,  the 
same  language,  and  the  same  traditions  and 
ideals  of  life.  They  are  animated  by  a  strong 
will  to  be  one  and  they  well  know  what  they 
suffered  when  they  were  disunited.  They 
are  educated  along  the  same  lines  and  to  the 
same  degree.  They  form  a  close  political  unit, 
characterized  by  the  enjoyment  of  universal 
manhood  suffrage  and  a  share  in  their  own 
government.  Their  populations  now  aggregate 
nearly  70,000,000. 

This  nation  controlled,  in  1914,  colonial  pos- 
sessions in  Africa  and  in  the  Pacific,  with  a  pop- 
ulation of  about  12,000,000. 

The  nation  came  very  late,  and  came  unwill- 
ingly, into  the  possession  of  a  dominion  across 
the  seas.  Bismarck,  the  empire-builder,  was  loath 
to  embark  upon  the  enterprise,  and  it  may  be 
said  that  the  exigencies  of  trade  forced  the  Ger- 
136 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

man  gradually  and  hesitatingly  to  become  the 
owner  of  foreign  lands. 

THE  UNITED  STATES 

The  forty-eight  states  of  our  Union  constitute 
a  true  nation.  We  have  assimilated  the 
foreigners  who  have  come  to  us,  or  are  rapidly 
assimilating  them,  and  we  may  with  justice  call 
ourselves  a  nation  of  nearly  100,000,000  souls 
with  a  will  to  be  one,  enjoying  the  same  political 
rights. 

We  control,  in  our  dependencies,  populations 
aggregating  about  10,250,000.  Most  of  these 
came  under  our  control  as  a  result  of  the  war 
with  Spain,  and  I  suppose  most  Americans  an- 
ticipated as  little  as  I  did,  that  the  wards  of  the 
nation  would  be  thus  increased  in  number. 

THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE 

The  British  nation  is,  as  nations  go  at  the 
present  time,  a  comparatively  small  one.  The 
United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
has  a  population  of  about  45,000,000,  less  than 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

half  that  of  the  United  States,  and  about  two- 
thirds  that  of  the  German  Confederation.  This 
population  inhabits  two  small  islands  which 
cover,  in  extent  of  surface,  about  one-hundredth 
part  of  the  land  comprised  within  the  limits  of 
the  British  Empire.  The  population  of  the 
United  Kingdom  may,  on  the  whole,  be  said  to 
be  animated  by  the  will  to  be  one,  but  this  must 
be  said  with  a  reservation.  About  three- fourths 
of  the  population  of  the  smaller  island,  Ireland, 
remain,  after  many  centuries  of  British  rule,  in- 
imical to  England,  and  can  scarcely  be  said  to 
be  willingly  British. 

The  population  of  the  United  Kingdom  con- 
stitutes the  core  of  the  British  Empire,  and  its 
parliament  governs  the  whole,  in  theory,  at  least. 
The  Empire  covers  nearly  one- fourth  of  the  land 
surface  of  the  globe,  and  its  population  numbers 
421,000,000  persons,  or  nine  times  the  popula- 
tion of  the  United  Kingdom. 

The  colonial  part  of  the  Empire,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  376,000,000,  consists  of  about  fifty 
commonwealths,  some  very  small  and  some  of 
enormous  extent.  A  few  of  them  are  practically 

138 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

self-governing;  the  majority  are  much  more  de- 
pendent than  is  commonly  thought.  All  of  them, 
without  distinction,  are  colonies,  that  is  to -say, 
none  shares  in  the  government  of  the  Empire, 
none  has  the  rights  of  independent  nations. 
What  rights  they  have  are,  in  theory,  conferred 
upon  them  by  the  United  Kingdom,  and  may  be 
curtailed  or  withdrawn.  They  cannot  declare 
war  or  make  peace,  nor  can  they  have  an  inde- 
pendent representative  in  international  affairs. 

Of  the  376,000,000  who  compose  this  colonial 
empire  about  18,500,000,  are  grouped  into  com- 
munities which  may  be  said  to  be  either  willingly 
British,  or  in  part  willingly  British.  These  com- 
munities are  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  New- 
foundland and  Labrador,  Australia  and  New 
Zealand,  and  the  Union  of  South  Africa.  Only 
in  a  very  limited  sense  can  the  Union  of  South 
Africa  be  said  to  be  willingly  British.  Some 
4,600,000  of  its  6,000,000  inhabitants  are 
colored,  and  very  few  of  them  enjoy  any  politi- 
cal rights.  Of  the  whites  only  two-fifths  are  of 
British  origin.  Much  of  the  land  was  taken  by 
conquest  only  fifteen  years  ago,  as  the  result  of 
139 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

a  bloody  war,  and  there  still  appears  to  be  a  dis- 
position to  insurrection  when  there  is  any  hope 
of  throwing  off  the  British  yoke.  Thus,  about 
13,000,000  of  the  376,000,000  belonging  to  the 
British  colonial  empire  are  willingly  British. 
They  give  up  certain  sovereign  rights,  either  as 
a  result  of  sentiment  or  with  a  view  to  certain 
political  or  economic  advantages.  They  live, 
however,  in  countries  very  far  removed  from 
the  British  Islands,  and  their  conditions  of  life 
are  widely  different.  It  cannot  be  maintained 
that  their  interests  are  identical  with  those  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  United  Kingdom.  They 
are  no  true  part  of  the  British  nation;  they  con- 
stitute, in  reality?  distinct  nations,  and  have  been 
developing  a  national  consciousness. 

The  rest  of  the  colonial  empire,  comprising  in 
round  numbers  360,000,000  souls,  is  ruled  by  the 
strong  arm.  By  this  I  do  not  mean  that  the  only 
weapon  used  is  an  armed  force.  Peoples  may 
be  ruled  by  an  external  power  in  a  variety  of 
ways.  Race  may  be  set  off  against  race,  re- 
ligion against  religion.  Semi-civilized  or  bar- 
barous rulers  may  be  kept  in  submission  by  the 
140 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

payment  of  subsidies.  Native  states  may  be 
granted  an  apparent  autonomy,  and  yet  held  in 
a  state  of  subservience.  But  when  all  is  said? 
we  come  back  to  the  fact  that  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions of  human  beings,  scattered  over  the  whole 
surface  of  the  earth,  are  ruled  by  a  mere  hand- 
ful dwelling  upon  two  small  islands  off  the  coast 
of  Europe,  and  that  this  vast  dominion  has  been 
built  up  in  the  interests  of  a  trade  profitable 
primarily  to  that  handful.  England  is  some- 
times pointed  to  as  an  illustration  of  the  triumph 
of  democracy.  But  the  British  Empire  is  as 
little  democratic  as  any  political  power  can  be 
conceived  to  be.  Only  one  British  subject  out 
of  nine  enjoys  a  share  in  its  government. 

I  have  no  desire  to  maintain  that  the  British 
Empire,  such  as  it  is,  is  badly  governed.  At- 
tempts to  secure  independence  are,  as  they  always 
have  been,  put  down  with  the  strong  hand.  But 
those  who  remain  contentedly  British  enjoy  the 
benefits  of  British  administrative  capacity.  I 
have  wished  only  to  call  attention  to  certain  pal- 
pable facts.  The  overwhelming  mass  of  British 
subjects  in  no  sense  belong  to  the  British  nation. 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

The  Empire  is  a  geographical  expression.  It  is 
held  together  by  an  external  force.  The  bond 
which  prevents  its  dissolution  is  the  colossal 
British  fleet.  Truly,  in  considering  the  facts,  one 
is  reminded  of  the  power  of  ancient  Rome.  Here 
we  have  imperialism  carried  to  its  farthest  prac- 
ticable limit,  and  forcing  itself  upon  our  atten- 
tion in  every  corner  of  the  habitable  globe.  The 
courage  of  the  undertaking  commands  our  ad- 
miration. 

FRANCE 

The  French  are  a  nation  possessing  a  highly 
favored  land,  fertile  and  very  productive,  with 
ready  access  to  the  northern  and  southern  seas, 
and  by  no  means  overpopulated  or  likely  to  be 
overpopulated,  for  the  population  is  stationary. 

Yet  France  thinks  it  worth  while  to  hold 
colonial  dominions  second  only  in  extent  and 
importance  to  those  of  the  British  Empire.  It 
has  dependencies  in  Asia,  Africa,  America  and 
Oceania,  with  a  total  population  of  some  44,- 
000,000  souls,  a  number  larger  than  that  of  the 
population  of  France.  A  considerable  part  of 
142 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

these  colonial  possessions  has  been  acquired  since 
the  foundation  of  the  present  Republic. 

The  original  policy  of  France  towards  its  sub- 
ject populations  was  that  of  education  and 
assimilation.  She  tried  to  make  them  French. 
But  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  past, 
the  hopelessness  of  compassing  this  end,  and  the 
realization  that  the  colonies  are  to  be  regarded 
as  valuable  chiefly  from  a  commercial  point  of 
view,  have  brought  about  a  change  of  policy. 
Nevertheless,  France  is,  in  certain  respects,  more 
democratic  in  its  treatment  of  its  colonies  than  is 
Great  Britain.  Certain  colonies  have  the  right 
to  elect  representatives  to  the  French  legislature, 
and  these  representatives  enjoy  equal  rights  with 
those  elected  by  constituencies  in  France. 

RUSSIA 

The  Russian  Empire  consists  of  an  enormous 
stretch  of  land  in  Eastern  Europe  and  Northern 
Asia,  covering  about  one-sixth  of  the  land  sur- 
face of  the  globe.  It  is  without  oceanic  posses- 
sions. 

As  I  have  said  elsewhere,  the  spread  of  the 
143 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

Muscovite  dominion  can  be  compared  only  to  the 
inundations  caused  by  a  rising  tide.  Civilized 
peoples  and  barbarous  tribes  have  alike  been  sub- 
merged. The  process  is  repeated  wherever  there 
is  a  dam  too  weak  to  hold  back  the  flood ;  it  met 
with  a  decided  check  at  the  hands  of  Japan  in 
1904-1905,  but  such  checks  are  temporary  and 
their  influence  is  local.  The  land-frontier  of  the 
Russian  Empire  in  Europe  and  Asia  extends  over 
more  than  12,000  miles,  and  there  are  many 
races  and  peoples  who  feel  themselves  menaced. 
We  think  of  the  Russian  Empire  as  inhabited 
by  Slavs.  The  mass  of  the  population  is  Slavic, 
but  we  must  not  forget  that  there  are  various 
Slavic  peoples,  some  of  them  by  no  means  closely 
related  with,  and  by  no  means  sympathetic  to, 
others.  We  should  also  remember  that  the  non- 
Slavic  population  of  the  Empire  rivals  in  extent 
the  population  of  France  or  that  of  the  United 
Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  The 
Russian  Empire  represents  a  dominion,  not  a 
nation.  It  is  not  held  together  by  an  inner 
cohesive  force,  by  the  will  to  be  one,  by  the  free 
consent  of  the  governed.  The  great  mass  of  its 
144 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

subjects  are  too  little  intelligent  and  too  little  in- 
formed to  give  a  free  and  intelligent  consent  to 
anything.  To  compare  the  union  of  its  peoples 
to  that  of  the  forty-eight  states  that  form  our 
Union  would  be  grossly  misleading.  In  short, 
Russia  is  imperialistic,  and  aggressively  imperial- 
istic, in  the  peculiar  sense  of  the  word  with  which 
I  am  concerned,  and  not  merely  in  the  sense  that 
its  ruler  bears  the  title  of  emperor. 

VARIETIES  OF  IMPERIALISM 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  countries 
differing  widely  from  one  another  in  their  form 
of  government  and  in  the  level  of  civilization 
upon  which  they  stand  may  be  imperialistic,  if 
we  use  that  word  to  indicate  the  control  exercised 
by  a  nation  over  peoples  which  form  no  part 
of  it — peoples  who  do  not  govern  but  are  gov- 
erned. 

Naturally,  those  who  are  thus  governed  will 
be  governed  well  or  ill  according  to  the  measure 
in  which  those  who  exercise  control  over  them 
are  humane  and  enlightened  or  the  reverse.  It 
may  be  accepted  as  a  maxim  that  subject  peoples 
145 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

are  not  held  in  subjection  by  other  peoples  for 
the  good  of  the  former,  and  as  an  experiment 
in  altruism.  Economic  advantage,  pride  of  do- 
minion, the  occupation  of  a  vantage  point  with 
some  ulterior  aim,  these  are  the  springs  of  action 
that  lead  to  colonial  expansion.  After  a  colony 
has  been  taken,  it  will,  of  course,  be  said  in 
countries  which  are  supposed  to  live  upon  a  high 
moral  plane,  that  it  is  better  for  the  colonists 
to  be  governed  in  spite  of  themselves  than  to  be 
left  to  their  own  devices  or  to  the  mercy  of  other 
dominant  powers.  But  the  whole  history  of 
colonization,  now  a  long  one,  shows  that  this 
is  an  after-thought  and  an  excuse. 

Nevertheless,  modern  civilized  nations  will  try 
to  govern  their  dependencies  in  a  civilized  way. 
I  have  suggested  that,  to  those  who  will  submit 
to  it,  modern  British  colonial  rule  is  not  a  bad 
one.  The  French  have  shown  much  the  same 
spirit,  and  have  even  attempted  to  go  farther. 
Neither  Great  Britain  nor  France  has  taken 
possession  of  a  civilized  race  and  deliberately 
degraded  its  civilization: 

In  Russia  we  meet  with  a  different  spectacle. 
146 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

In  Finland,  in  the  Baltic  Provinces,  in  Poland, 
civilization  has  met  with  a  distinct  reverse.  But 
this  is  because  Russia  is  not  yet  a  civilized  power, 
as  those  words  are  understood  in  Western 
Europe.  She  has  brought,  or  has  tried  to  bring, 
her  provinces  down  to  her  own  level.  To  be 
brought  to  this  level  may  be  a  rise  for  a  Tartar 
horde ;  it  is  a  fall  for  a  European  people. 

AMERICAN  IMPERIALISM  AND  GERMAN 

If  one  will  take  a  map  indicating  in  colors 
the  territorial  growth  of  the  United  States,  one 
will  see  something  that  suggests  to  the  superficial 
observer  the  spread  of  the  Muscovite  dominion. 
The  territory  we  occupied,  or,  rather,  controlled, 
in  1/83,  constitutes  less  than  a  third  of  that  now 
covered  by  our  forty-eight  states.  On  different 
parts  of  the  great  expanse  taken  over  later  we 
read  the  dates:  1803,  1810-1813,  1818,  1819, 
1845  J  1845-1848,  1846,  1848,  1853.  Not  all  of 
this  land  came  to  us  as  the  result  of  purchase  or 
of  peaceable  negotiations. 

Nevertheless,  the  land  our  states  now  cover 
is  in  no  wise  to  be  compared  to  the  Russian 
147 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

Empire.  In  the  main,  our  spread  was  that  of 
a  vigorous  people  into  empty  or  relatively  empty 
lands,  and  it  was  followed  by  rapid  assimila- 
tion. We  carried  with  us  a  civilization  higher 
than  that  of  the  peoples  whom  we  absorbed,  and 
we  granted  to  the  new  territories,  as  soon  as 
they  were  ready  to  exercise  it,  the  whole  measure 
of  freedom  enjoyed  by  any  of  ourselves.  From 
Maine  to  California,  from  North  Dakota  to 
Texas,  the  land  is  inhabited  by  Americans,  who 
represent  a  singularly  uniform  type,  who  wish 
to  be  Americans,  and  who  exercise  the  privilege 
of  self-government.  If  the  great  tract  of  coun- 
try over  which  we  are  spread  must  be  compared 
to  any  empire,  let  it  be  compared  to  the  German 
Empire,  which  is  also  a  free  union  of  civilized 
states,  with  a  homogeneous  population.  Let  it 
not  be  compared  to  the  Russian  Empire  or 
to  the  British,  which  are  something  wholly  dif- 
ferent. 

With   the  purchase  of   Alaska   in    1867   tne 

United  States  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  entered 

upon  a  colonial  policy.     The  land  had,  at  that 

time,  an  estimated  population  of  only  30,000,  of 

148 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

whom  two-thirds  were  Eskimo  and  other  In- 
dians. Within  twenty  years,  however,  the 
United  States  has  come  into  the  possession  of 
what  may  be  called  a  small  colonial  empire  in 
the  seas  both  to  the  east  and  to  the  west.  Its 
foreign  interests  have  very  considerably  in- 
creased, and  I  do  not  believe  that  any  American 
is,  at  the  present  day,  in  a  position  to  say  what 
people  or  peoples  the  exigencies  of  the  future, 
as  yet  unknown,  may  bring  wholly  or  partly 
under  our  control.  One  thing  is  certain.  The 
American  nation  has  not  consciously  started  out 
upon  a  campaign  of  imperialism.  We  are  not 
land-poor,  for  we  inhabit  an  enormous  stretch 
of  country  with  boundless  resources.  In  order 
to  prosper,  we  are  not  compelled  to  take  forcible 
possession  of  the  lands  of  others.  And  I  think 
another  thing  is  certain.  That  is,  that,  to  the 
average  cultivated  American,  the  thought  is  re- 
pugnant that  we  should  seize  the  lands  of  other 
peoples  with  no  other  view  than  that  of  exploit- 
ing those  peoples  in  our  own  material  interests. 
There  are,  to  be  sure,  Americans  who  do  not 
stand  upon  so  high  a  plane,  but  they  are  in  the 
149 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

minority.  We  gave  Cuba  back  to  the  Cubans. 
It  would  offend  the  moral  sense  of  such  Ameri- 
cans, as  are  not  moved  by  their  own  direct  finan- 
cial interest,  to  think  that  we  should  hold  the 
Philippines,  with  no  thought  of  the  well-being  of 
the  native  populations,  and  with  an  eye  single  to 
the  development,  in  the  interests  of  Americans, 
of  the  great  natural  resources  of  the  islands. 

I  have  thought  it  worth  while  to  bring  under 
the  same  heading  American  imperialism  and 
German,  for  the  two  have  not  a  few  points  in 
common.  In  the  first  place,  both  nations  repre- 
sent confederations  of  civilized  states  which  nat- 
urally belong  together;  and  in  each  case  the 
colonial  empire  is  not  merely  of  limited  extent 
but  is  of  comparatively  recent  origin.  Com- 
pared with  the  size  of  the  nations  controlling 
them,  the  populations  controlled  have  been,  up 
to  the  present,  small. 

In  the  second  place,  as  American  interests 
have  become  more  largely  international,  it  has 
seemed  worth  while  to  the  United  States  to  hold 
certain  dependencies  remote  from  our  own 
shores.  The  same  sentiment  has  come  to  obtain 
150 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

in  Germany,  and  it  is  the  natural  result  of  the 
great  increase  in  the  volume  of  Germany's  for- 
eign trade. 

In  the  third  place,  the  United  States,  in  order 
to  live  and  prosper,  has  not  been  compelled  to 
seize  the  lands  of  foreign  peoples.  Neither  has 
Germany.  With  colonies  as  yet  comparatively 
insignificant,  German  thrift  and  intelligence 
have  rendered  the  German  s'tktes  exceedingly 
rich  and  prosperous.  Assured  of  peace,  and 
under  even  moderately  fair  conditions  of  free 
competition  in  the  markets  of  the  world,  the 
German  has  shown  that  he  can  hold  his  own  as 
can  the  American.  As  things  are,  and  with  a 
land  far  smaller  than  our  own,  the  German  has 
found  himself  so  well  off  at  home  that  emigra- 
tion from  Germany  has  practically  ceased. 

And  I  think  I  can  in  all  justice  reiterate,  in 
speaking  of  Germany,  the  two  "certainties"  men- 
tioned above.  I  feel  ready  to  affirm  without 
hesitation  that  the  German  nation  has  not,  in 
recent  years,  consciously  started  out  upon  a  cam- 
paign of  imperialism,  as  that  word  is  commonly 
understood.  Certain  foolish  Germans  have 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

published  intemperate  books,  and  these  books 
have  been  more  read  and  commented  upon  in 
foreign  lands  than  in  the  country  in  which  they 
have  been  brought  to  the  birth.  This  is  entirely 
natural.  Germany  is  a  new  nation  and  a  strong 
nation.  She  inspires  those,  who  before  regarded 
her  with  a  more  or  less  kindly  contempt,  with 
the  apprehension  always  inspired  by  strength. 
But  in  my  many  conversations  with  Germans  of 
all  classes,  both  military  and  civil,  I  have  never 
heard  the  books  in  question  discussed,  unless  I 
led  up  to  the  topic  myself,  which  I  was  moved  to 
do  from  a  perusal  of  the  English  and  American 
newspapers. 

Such  utterances  are  not  taken  more  seriously 
in  Germany  than  are  the  utterances  of  extremists 
among  ourselves.  I  am  not  referring  to  what 
has  been  printed  since  the  outbreak  of  the  war, 
but  to  what  was  written  before,  and  might  be 
expected  to  represent  the  sentiments  of  Germans 
under  normal  conditions.  The  mass  of  the  Ger- 
mans longed  for  peace,  and  for  the  economic 
development  made  possible  by  the  reign  of  peace. 
They  had  no  thought  of  a  career  of  conquest, 
152 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

although  they  were  ready  for  an  energetic  de- 
fense. 

The  second  certainty  referred  to  is  that  it 
would  be  repugnant  to  a  people,  so  humane  and 
civilized  as  the  Germans  have  shown  themselves 
to  be,  to  treat  subject  races  with  inhumanity  and 
to  exploit  them  remorselessly.  Think  of  the 
social  legislation  of  the  German  states;  of  the 
protection  of  the  rights  of  the  poor,  the  infirm, 
the  helpless.  It  would  be  as  unnatural  for  such 
a  people  to  deal  inhumanly  with  a  subject  race  as 
it  would  be  for  us. 

SUMMARY 

Nations  differing  widely  from  one  another  in 
the  form  of  government  which  they  enjoy  may 
be  imperialistic.  The  most  imperialistic  of  na- 
tions, Great  Britain,  does  not  happen  to  be  a 
republic;  but  the  republic  of  France  has  a  colonial 
empire  which  is  usually  classed  as  second  in  ex- 
tent and  in  importance.  All  of  the  great  powers 
are  imperialistic  to  some  degree.  But  the  United 
States  and  Germany  have  become  so  very  re- 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

cently,  and  have  been  far  less  imperialistic,  so 
far,  than  the  other  powers  I  have  mentioned. 
Neither  the  United  States  nor  Germany  deliber- 
ately set  out  upon  a  career  of  conquest  at  any 
time  within  the  past  generation.  We  did  not 
make  war  upon  Spain  in  order  to  take  away  her 
colonies ;  their  acquisition  was  for  us  an  accident 
of  the  war.  Both  the  United  States  and  Ger- 
many have,  however,  concluded  that  it  is  worth 
while  to  hold  possessions  across  the  seas. 

Doubtless  there  are  many  Germans  who  agree 
with  Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  Italians,  Span- 
iards, Hollanders,  Portuguese  and  others  in  think- 
ing that  it  is  a  good  thing  to  have  a  colonial 
empire  of  some  importance.  But  this  no  more 
proves  that  they  have  harbored  thoughts  of 
conquest,  than  does  the  American's  conviction 
that  it  is  a  good  thing  to  be  rich  prove  that  he 
harbors  the  purpose  to  get  rich  by  force  or  by 
fraud. 

Upon  the  desirability  or  the  reverse  of  im- 
perialism in  general  I  express  no  opinion.  But 
I  think  it  worth  while  to  emphasize  the  fact  that 
Germany  has  not  been  in  the  past,  and  is  not 
154 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

now,  more  imperialistic  than  other  nations.  In- 
deed, to  catch  up  with  some  of  them,  she  would 
have  to  make  immense  strides  in  the  future. 
They  out-distance  her  almost  hopelessly. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NATIONS 

TWO  new  nations,  the  United  States  of 
America  and  United  Germany,  have, 
by  their  own  robust  inner  development  and 
through  the  strength  given  them  by  the  measure 
of  modern  civilization  which  they  enjoy,  com- 
pletely upset  the  balance  of  power  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth  within  half  a  century.  In 
each  case  the  foundations  for  this  development 
were  laid  long  before,  but  it  was  reserved  for 
recent  years  to  reveal  how  imposing  a  super- 
structure would  rest  upon  them.  China,  a  far 
greater  nation,  if  greatness  is  to  be  measured  by 
size  of  population,  has  not  so  far  upset  the  bal- 
ance of  power  at  all. 

Is  it  or  is  it  not  inevitable,  is  it  or  is  it  not  de- 
sirable, that  the  balance  of  power  should  from 
time  to  time  be  upset  and  set  up  again  upon  a 

156 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

new  basis?  What  is  it  reasonable  to  look  for? 
For  what  is  it  wise  to  work  ?  In  this  final  chapter 
I  shall  discuss  briefly  the  status  quo  and  the 
balance  of  power,  and  shall  present  a  few  con- 
siderations which  seem  inevitably  to  suggest 
themselves  to  one  who  reflects  upon  the  signifi- 
cance of  these  expressions. 

THE  STATUS  Quo  AND  THE  BALANCE  OF  POWER 

The  expressions  themselves  have  constantly 
been  used  as  catch-words,  as  magical  formulas 
to  tickle  the  ears  of  the  unthinking.  That  rather 
vague  expression  the  status  quo  is  often  in  the 
mouth  of  the  man  who  finds  it  to  his  purpose 
to  urge  the  continued  existence  of  a  state  of 
things  which  long  has  been  or  which  has  recently 
come  into  being.  He  who  has  been  well  off,  or 
who  is  well  off,  is  no  friend  to  innovations.  The 
existing  balance  of  power  always  seems  satis- 
factory to  the  man  on  whose  side  the  balance 
inclines. 

Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  their  abuse  as  catch- 
words, something  may  be  said  for  the  status  quo 
and  the  balance  of  power,  as  I  shall  indicate  later. 
157 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

But  it  is  only  their  abuse  that  can  delude  us  into 
thinking  that  they  are  things  to  insist  upon  in- 
dependently of  the  interests  of  civilization  and 
a  regard  for  the  welfare  of  mankind,  or  that 
they  should  be  maintained,  when  the  conditions 
which,  perhaps,  justified  them,  have  undergone 
great  changes. 

Arguments  based  upon  the  status  quo  and  the 
balance  of  power  are  primarily  appeals  to  the 
conservative.  The  American  has  his  conserv- 
ative side;  he  is  not  inclined  to  revolutions;  but 
a  conservative  of  the  conservatives  he  has  never 
been,  and  he  is  too  young  and  too  vigorous  to 
abhor  changes  on  principle.  What,  on  the  whole, 
has  been  the  attitude  of  the  American  towards 
the  status  quo? 

Did  we  accept  the  status  quo  when  we  dispos- 
sessed the  Indians?  Did  we  bow  down  before 
the  principle  when  we  published  our  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  in  1776?  Did  we  show  our 
respect  for  it  when  we  rebelled  against  the  search 
of  American  ships  and  the  impressment  of  Amer- 
ican seamen  by  Great  Britain  in  the  years  pre- 
ceding 1812? 

158 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

Did  we  think  of  the  status  quo  in  1861,  when 
we  refused  to  recognize  the  Confederacy,  and 
insisted  upon  the  integrity  of  the  Union?  Did 
we  treat  it  with  deference  at  the  time  of  our  war 
with  Spain  ?  Neither  the  status  quo  nor  the  bal- 
ance of  power  influenced  the  President  who  first 
enunciated  the  Monroe  Doctrine;  neither  was  in 
the  mind  of  Lincoln  when  his  inspired  pen  freed 
enslaved  millions;  neither  controlled  the  series 
of  decisions  which  have  given  us  a  fortified 
Panama  Canal  under  American  control;  neither 
held  us  back  from  that  participation  in  interna- 
tional complications  which  is  unavoidably  attend- 
ant upon  the  extension  of  our  interests  in  the  Far 
East. 

The  rise  of  Germany  has  been  as  natural  and 
as  inevitable  as  that  of  our  own  country.  The 
union  of  the  German  states  in  1871  resulted  in 
the  United  States  of  Germany,  a  strong  con- 
federation of  highly  civilized  states  under  a  fed- 
eral government  analogous  to  our  own.  The  pop- 
ulation of  the  Empire,  large  at  the  time  of  its 
foundation,  has  rapidly  increased.  It  is  a  homo- 
geneous, thoroughly  educated,  highly  enlightened 
159 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

population,  with  the  mental  and  moral  qualities 
which  make  for  economic  progress;  order  and 
discipline,  industry,  ingenuity,  enterprise,  and  a 
capacity  for  organization.  The  German  nation 
is,  as  a  nation,  very  young — much  younger  than 
our  own.  The  blood  of  youth  courses  in  its 
veins,  and  Germany  naturally  looks  forward 
and  not  back.  The  unbroken  peace  which  the 
nation  enjoyed  for  nearly  half  a  century  resulted 
in  an  internal  development  which  has  brought 
it,  in  science,  industries  and  commerce,  into  the 
front  ranks  among  modern  nations. 

Such  a  development — it  is  a  development 
wholly  in  the  interests  of  civilization — has  un- 
avoidably disturbed  the  balance  of  power  in 
Europe.  It  is  not  the  German  army  and  the 
German  navy  that  have  disturbed  the  balance 
of  power.  These  are  only  symptoms.  The  na- 
tion itself  has,  by  its  natural  development,  and 
largely  through  the  exercise  of  moral  qualities 
which,  in  the  abstract,  all  men  approve,  been 
the  real  cause  of  the  disturbance.  Old  things 
in  Europe  have  to  some  degree  passed  away; 
things  of  no  little  importance  to  Europe  have 
1 60 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

become  new.  Shall  we  appeal  to  the  status  quo 
and  conspire  together  to  set  back  the  clock,  or 
shall  we  recognize  that  the  times  have  changed 
and  that  we  have  changed  with  them? 

It  may  be  urged  in  favor  of  the  status  quo  in 
general  that  it  is  a  principle  which  makes  for 
peace.  Conservatism  is  valued  by  the  thought- 
ful, and  more  valued  by  men  of  experience  than 
by  the  young  and  headlong.  The  Law  is  con- 
servative; the  Church  is  conservative;  the  social 
usages  to  which  men  are  accustomed,  they  do 
not  lightly  give  up  in  favor  of  others.  In  all 
countries  it  is  felt  that  a  certain  respect  for  what 
is  sanctioned  by  custom  gives  stability  to  the 
social  organism.  Yet  there  is  no  country  in 
which  there  is  not  some  change.  Where  there 
is  none,  or  almost  none,  there  is  no  life  and  no 
progress.  The  only  pure  conservative  is  the  man 
who  is  dead.  He  who  is  wisely  conservative 
will  strive  to  assimilate  as  much  of  the  new  as 
seems  good,  and  to  avoid  paying  too  high  a  price 
for  the  innovation. 

The  status  quo  makes  for  peace,  but,  if  con- 
ditions change  beyond  a  certain  point,  the  peace 
161 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

may  reveal  itself  as  a  frozen  immobility  which 
nations  with  life  in  them  will  reject  as  intoler- 
able. The  changes  which  have  taken  place  in 
the  United  States  have  rendered  wholly  unavoid- 
able altered  relations  to  the  world  at  large.  The 
development  of  Germany  makes  it  out  of  the  ques- 
tion that  Germany  should  now  be  regarded  and 
treated  as  it  was  not  unnatural  to  regard  and 
treat  the  loose  aggregate  of  territories  that  passed 
by  that  name  in  an  earlier  time. 

It  seems  as  though  it  ought  to  be  possible  to 
arrive  at  some  sort  of  a  mutual  understanding 
among  the  more  civilized  nations,  at  least,  that 
may  take  account  of  such  changes.  It  is  desir- 
able that  developing  nations,  civilized  nations 
whose  growth  in  wealth  and  power  signifies  a 
contribution  to  the  total  wealth  of  the  world  and 
to  the  richness  of  its  civilization — it  is  desirable 
that  such  nations  should  have  a  place  made  for 
them,  a  place  which  they  may  take  gradually,  as 
able  men  rise  gradually  by  their  own  efforts  in 
a  civilized  state.  That  every  period  of  growth 
and  development  should  be  succeeded  by  a  disas- 
trous convulsion,  and  by  an  enormous  destruc- 
162 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

tion  of  values  in  many  lands,  is  a  great  misfor- 
tune.   Is  this  unavoidable? 


THE  FREEDOM  OF  THE  SEAS 

The  problem  is  one  for  which  there  is  no  easy 
solution.  There  can  scarcely  be  a  readjustment 
of  any  kind  in  human  affairs  which  does  not 
bring  some  hardship  to  someone.  Free  compe- 
tition under  peaceful  conditions  does  not  seem 
ideal  to  those  who  have  enjoyed  special  priv- 
ileges, or  to  those  who  are  endowed  with  a 
large  measure  of  indolence  or  incapacity. 

I  shall  here  do  no  more  than  make  a  sugges- 
tion towards  a  partial  solution  of  the  problem 
in  the  form  in  which  it  at  present  confronts  us. 
I  shall  dwell  upon  the  important  topic  of  the  free- 
dom of  the  seas. 

Let  me  begin  with  an  illustration.  The  State 
of  New  York  is  a  rich  and  an  old  state.  Let  us 
suppose  that  it  laid  claim  to  the  control  of  vari- 
ous portions  of  territory  scattered  all  over  the 
United  States,  aggregating  in  all  nearly  one- 
fourth  of  the  total  surface  of  the  country.  Such 
163 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

possessions  would  be  of  no  value  to  New  York, 
and,  for  that  matter,  could  not  be  kept  under  its 
control,  were  a  ready  means  of  communication 
with  them  not  under  its  control  as  well.  Such 
a  means  of  communication  is  furnished  by  the 
railroads  of  the  United  States. 

Let  us  suppose  that  the  Empire  State,  to  render 
itself  secure  in  the  possession  of  its  "colonial  em- 
pire," assumed  a  practical  control  over  the  rail- 
ways of  the  whole  country;  building  and  sending 
out  a  vast  number  of  armored  trains;  erecting 
forts  at  strategic  points — important  junctions — 
sometimes  near  and  sometimes  on  the  territories 
of  other  states  supposed  to  be  independent;  keep- 
ing bodies  of  armed  men  ready  to  strike  at  a 
moment's  notice  where  any  dependent  territory 
might  seem  disposed  to  aim  at  independence  or 
where  any  other  state  might  be  suspected  of  an 
inclination  to  assert  rights  not  in  harmony  with 
the  interests  of  New  Yorkers.  Suppose  that 
other  states  also  claimed  to  have  interests  beyond 
their  own  borders,  and,  although  in  a  lesser  de- 
gree, equipped  and  sent  out  armored  trains,  under 
the  tacit  understanding,  to  be  sure,  that  they 
164 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

should  do  nothing  to  endanger  the  dominant  in- 
fluence of  New  York. 

Such  a  condition  of  affairs  might  be  main- 
tained for  a  while  by  the  actual  superiority  in 
strength  enjoyed  by  the  State  of  New  York,  by 
its  skill  in  diplomacy,  and  by  the  inability  of 
other  states  to  find  some  practicable  means  of 
putting  an  end  to  it  in  their  own  interests.  For 
a  while  it  might  be  kept  up  by  the  force  of  sheer 
inertia.  Tradition  and  prestige  count  for  much 
in  the  affairs  of  men.  States  that  feel  themselves 
to  be  weak  may  not  like  to  see  the  fortresses 
of  foreign  powers  on  their  territory  or  at  their 
gates,  but  their  inhabitants  grow  used  to  the 
sight,  and  their  feelings  are  not  what  they  would 
be  if  they  saw  it  for  the  first  time. 

But  suppose  that,  in  the  natural  course  of 
events,  at  least  two  of  the  other  states  grew  as 
rich  and  powerful  as  the  State  of  New  York,  if 
not  more  so.  Could  the  existent  state  of  affairs 
then  permanently  be  maintained?  Would  such 
States  consent  to  be  shut  up  within  their  own 
borders  or  to  reach  out  beyond  them  only  on 
sufferance,  exercising  a  limited  right  more  appn> 

165 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

priate  to  a  colony  than  to  a  sovereign  state  ?  The 
question,  I  think,  answers  itself.  And  if  the 
State  of  New  York,  finding  the  equipment  of 
so  many  armored  trains  a  heavy  burden,  should 
point  out  to  the  other  states  that  they  were 
burdened,  too,  and  should  suggest  an  all-around 
check  in  armaments,  but  one  made  under  such 
limitations  that  the  dominant  control  of  New 
York  over  the  railways  of  the  country  should 
remain  secure,  how  would  the  suggestion  be  re- 
ceived? This  question,  also,  carries  with  it  its 
answer. 

The  distances  which  separate  the  five  principal 
divisions  of  the  British  Empire,  the  United 
Kingdom,  South  Africa,  India,  Australia  and 
Canada,  are  enormous.  They  stretch  entirely 
around  the  world  and  zigzag  over  many  latitudes. 
The  distance  from  England  to  the  Cape  is  about 
5,000  miles;  that  from  the  Cape  to  Bombay  is 
not  much  less;  that  from  Bombay  to  Melbourne 
is  still  greater;  from  Melbourne  to  Auckland  it 
is  nearly  2,000  miles;  from  the  last-mentioned 
place  to  Vancouver  it  is  more  than  6,000; 
and  from  Halifax  to  Liverpool  there  is  a  stretch 
166 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

of  2,700.  The  voyage  from  London  to  Bombay 
by  way  of  the  Mediterranean  is  6,000  miles  long ; 
that  from  London  to  Sidney,  by  the  same  route, 
more  than  11,000. 

The  holding  of  a  dominant  control  over  these 
great  waterways  necessitates  the  occupation  of 
a  multitude  of  intermediate  stations,  and  such 
the  British  Empire  has  in  its  hand — naval  and 
military  bases,  coaling  stations,  commercial  sta- 
tions which  are  at  the  strategic  points  of  interna- 
tional trade.  Such  colonial  holdings  have  not 
been  acquired  through  the  free  gift  of  nations 
stronger  than  Great  Britain.  As  one  runs  one's 
eye  over  the  list  of  the  British  colonies  and 
makes  a  note  of  the  method  of  their  acquisition, 
one  reads:  "possession  taken,"  settlement," 
"conquest,"  "settlement  and  conquest,"  "capitula- 
tion," "cession,"  "settlement  and  cession," 
"military  occupation,"  "annexation,"  "protector- 
ate declared,"  "treaty,  conquest  and  settlement," 
"occupation  and  cession,"  "treaty  and  protect- 
orate." 

These  settlements,  conquests,  capitulations, 
cessions,  occupations,  protectorates  and  annexa- 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

tions  have  been,  naturally,  at  the  expense  of  the 
weaker  party?  whether  that  party  was  small  or 
large,  uncivilized  or  civilized.  Were  Spain  as 
powerful  as  the  United  States,  she  would  no 
more  permit  the  occupation  of  .Gibraltar  than  we 
would  that  of  Newport  News.  Were  Italy  a 
very  powerful  nation  she  would  refuse  to  have 
Malta  in  the  hands  of  Great  Britain.  Were 
Turkey  not  helpless,  Egypt  would  not  have  been 
first  occupied  and  then  made  a  protectorate. 
Were  China  not  a  weak  giant,  she  would  no  more 
tolerate  a  Hong  Kong  under  British  rule  than 
would  the  United  States  a  Staten  Island  con- 
trolled by  Great  Britain. 

I  have  no  desire  to  find  fault  with  the  British 
for  the  methods  by  which  the  growth  of  their 
empire  has  been  insured.  They  are  the  usual 
methods  employed  in  the  acquisition  of  colonies, 
and  I  am  not  concerned  with  the  question  of 
colonies  in  the  abstract.  I  have  chosen  to  con- 
sider the  situation  created  by  the  existence  of 
the  British  Empire,  rather  than  some  other,  for 
two  reasons.  The  one  reason  is  the  enormous 
size  of  the  burden  which  the  British  have  taken 
168 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

upon  their  shoulders;  the  other  is  its  extreme 
unwieldiness — the  wide  distribution  over  the  face 
of  the  earth  of  the  colonies  which  compose  the 
great  dominion.  The  British  nation  is  not  one 
of  the  largest,  by  any  means,  and  yet  it  seems 
forced  to  police  the  whole  surface  of  the  globe. 
And  its  "interests"  are  so  distributed  that  it 
seems  almost  inevitable  that  they  should  come 
into  conflict  with  those  of  many  races  and 
peoples. 

With  the  rise  of  other  strong  nations,  even 
highly  civilized  and  not  especially  aggressive  na- 
tions, the  weight  of  the  burden  must  inevitably 
increase.  No  civilized  nation  to-day  lives  within 
its  own  borders.  None  occupies  itself  exclusively 
with  agriculture  and  the  consumption  of  its  own 
products.  All  demand  a  free  access  to  the 
markets  of  the  world.  Unless  they  are  guar- 
anteed the  freedom  of  the  seas,  a  guarantee 
that  they  cannot  regard  themselves  as  enjoying 
so  long  as  the  seas  are  under  the  dominant 
control  of  any  one  nation,  they  must  feel  that 
the  great  public  highways  of  the  world  may  at 
any  time  be  closed  to  them.  This,  by  weaker 
169 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

nations,  will  be  felt  to  be  intolerable,  and,  by 
strong  nations,  will  not,  in  the  long  run,  be 
tolerated. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  substituting  a  dominant 
control  by  one  nation  for  that  exercised  before 
by  another.  It  is  a  question  of  genuine  inter- 
nationalization. The  question  is  a  burning  one. 
Nations,  whose  advance  in  civilization  and  capac- 
ity for  production  is  a  marked  one,  may,  if 
allowed  to  expand  peaceably  in  their  trade-rela- 
tions, not  be  forced  to  enter  upon  the  part  of 
territorial  expansion,  at  the  expense  of  their 
neighbors,  characteristic  of  vigorous  and  grow- 
ing nations  under  more  primitive  conditions.  An 
international  guarantee  of  the  freedom  of  the 
seas  and  of  access  to  the  markets  of  the  world 
might  conceivably  ward  off  some  of  those  dis- 
astrous convulsions  from  which  it  has  seemed 
impossible  up  to  the  present  to  protect  even  the 
civilized  world. 

Such  an  arrangement  could  only  be  compassed 
with  the  hearty  cooperation  of  the  leading  civil- 
ized nations.    Its  effects  might  be  very  far-reach- 
ing, affecting  even  the  status  of  colonial  peoples 
170 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

generally.  But  it  scarcely  seems  as  though  any 
difficulties  it  could  conjure  up  could  weigh  in  the 
balance  against  the  overwhelming  malady  it 
would  seek  to  cure. 

THE  DUTY  OF  THE  NATIONS 

We  commonly  regard  men  as  having  certain 
immediate  and  imperative  duties,  and  other 
duties  which  may  be  counted  as  more  remote. 
Self-preservation  and  the  preservation  of  wife 
and  children,  the  endeavor  to  raise  oneself  and 
one's  family  out  of  dire  poverty  and  degrading 
dependence,  the  struggle  to  obtain  some  of  the 
material  advantages  which  other  men  enjoy  as 
a  reward  for  labor — these  have  the  approval  of 
all,  and  appear  to  bear  the  stamp  of  imperative 
duty.  He  who  is  neglectful  in  these  fields 
is  scarcely  in  a  position  to  fulfil  properly  other 
duties  which  men  also  regard  as  of  importance. 
There  are  other  duties  of  importance;  the  duty 
of  obeying  the  laws  and  seeing  to  it  that  others 
obey  them;  the  duty  of  being  a  good  neighbor 
and  regardful  of  one's  fellow  man;  the  duty  of 
bringing  about  changes,  from  time  to  time,  in 
171 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

the  social  organism,  when  that  organism  is  dis- 
covered to  be  imperfect  in  this  respect  or  in 
that,  and  to  work  hardship  to  individuals  or  to 
social  classes. 

It  is  the  same  with  nations.  .No  one  denies  to 
the  nations  the  right  of  defending  their  national 
existence  or  struggling  against  such  a  mutilation 
as  would  condemn  them  to  the  life  of  the  cripple. 
No  one  condemns  their  peaceful  attempts  at 
self -development,  their  raising  the  level  of  educa- 
tion and  efficiency  in  their  populations,  their 
ingenuity  and  assiduity  in  prosecuting  those  arts 
which  contribute  to  the  world's  civilization  and 
material  wealth.  If  the  success  with  which  any 
nation  fulfils  these  tasks  gives  offense  to  any 
other  nation,  it  is  because  of  a  conflict  of  private 
interests,  not  because  the  activities  in  themselves 
are  objectionable.  The  very  virtues  of  the 
grocer  on  the  corner  of  the  block  may  offend  me, 
if  I  am  myself  a  grocer,  and  am  less  highly  en- 
dowed with  those  virtues. 

But  the  nations  have  also  other  duties:  the 
duty  of  treating  their  neighbors  with  all  the 
consideration  that  existent  circumstances  may 
172 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

permit  of;  the  duty  of  helping  to  work  out 
some  international  system  of  relations  which  will 
make  it  possible  for  the  nations  to  live  a  civilized 
life  in  their  relations  with  each  other,  and  not 
merely  possible  for  individuals  within  a  nation 
to  act  like  civilized  men.  If  a  nation  is  not  re- 
gardful of  the  duties  first  mentioned,  it  will  be 
able  to  do  small  service  toward  the  fulfilment 
of  those  dwelt  upon  just  above.  Weak  nations 
may  be  powerless  for  evil,  but  they  are  also 
powerless  for  good. 

I  have  maintained  that  the  great  desideratum 
for  the  family  of  the  nations  is  some  such  flex- 
ible system  of  international  organization  that 
growth  may  take  place  unaccompanied  by  con- 
vulsions and  the  rupture  of  the  system.  The  very 
first  requisite  appears  to  me  to  be  an  interna- 
tional guarantee  of  the  freedom  of  the  seas.  In 
this  the  small  nations  would  find  their  profit 
as  well  as  the  larger.  This  guarantee  would,  to 
a  certain  extent,  throw  open  to  all  the  markets 
of  the  world,  and  would  be  in  the  interests  of 
the  survival  of  those  really  fit.  But  it  would 
not,  in  itself,  solve  the  whole  problem.  I  have 
173 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

hinted  that  it  might,  in  the  future — perhaps,  the 
remote  future — lead  to  a  new  conception  of  the 
status  of  colonies  in  general.  However,  that  is 
a  problem  for  a  more  or  less  distant  future,  and 
to-day  we  are  confronted  by  a  condition  which 
calls  for  immediate  consideration.  The  present 
situation  is  intolerable,  so  intolerable  that  it  will 
surely  bring  with  it  its  remedy.  The  trade  of 
the  world,  of  neutral  nations  as  well  as  bellig- 
erents, has  been  treated  as  the  private  property 
of  a  single  nation;  the  public  highways  of  the 
world  have  been  blocked.  Those  who  go  down 
to  the  sea  in  ships  appear  to  be  under  no  law. 
The  nations  must  combine  together  to  prevent 
a  recurrence  of  such  intolerable  conditions  in  the 
future. 

In  this  book  I  am  concerned  chiefly  with  Ger- 
many, and  I  turn  again  here  to  Germany.  Like 
any  individual  man,  the  German  nation  has  found 
itself  confronted  by  certain  imperative  duties, 
and  these  it  has  fulfilled  with  an  unusual  meas- 
ure of  faithfulness  and  diligence.  It  has  pro- 
vided for  its  national  defense,  it  has  educated 
and  trained  its  population,  securing  to  all  classes 
174 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

a  high  measure  of  well-being.  It  has  cultivated 
the  arts  and  sciences,  contributing  to  the  en- 
lightenment and  material  well-being  of  the  world. 
It  has  reaped  a  substantial  reward  for  its  labors. 
Finally,  it  has  found  itself  plunged  into  a  des- 
perate war  in  which  it  must  protect  itself  against 
destruction,  or,  at  the  least,  serious  mutilation. 

Into  the  causes  of  the  war  I  need  not  here  go, 
further  than  to  say  that  the  causes  so  often 
brought  forward  are  wholly  trivial  and  inade- 
quate. The  Germans  did  not  go  to  war  because 
Treitschke  lectured;  they  did  not  take  up  arms 
because  one  or  more  military  enthusiasts  wrote 
intemperately ;  Nietzsche  had  no  more  to  do  with 
it  than  Artemus  Ward.  Great  world-movements 
are  as  little  to  be  accounted  for  by  such  trivial 
circumstances  as  is  the  motion  of  the  dining-car 
by  the  fact  that  there  is  a  fly  in  the  butter.  Nor 
must  we  look  for  the  true  causes  in  the  notes 
of  diplomats,  however  cleverly  drawn  up. 
These  are  symptoms,  or,  at  best,  occasions,  not 
the  causes  which  exert  a  permanent  pressure, 
and  bring  about  a  real  disturbance  in  the  balance 
of  power.  In  truly  civilized  nations  the  words 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

or  even  the  actions  of  an  individual  man  have 
not  the  significance  that  they  may  have  in 
an  oriental  despotism. 

Nor  shall  I  predict  the  outcome  of  the  war. 
That  is  something  for  the  future.  I  say  with 
some  confidence,  however,  that,  should  Germany 
win,  she  will  probably  be  confronted  by  a  situa- 
tion as  little  anticipated  by  most  Germans  at  the 
beginning  of  the  year  19 14,  as  was  the  situation 
in  which  we  found  ourselves  after  the  Spanish 
War  anticipated  by  most  Americans.  We  had 
not  entered  upon  a  war  of  conquest;  we  found 
ourselves  with  a  colonial  empire  upon  our  hands. 
What  will  Germany  do?  Frankly,  I  do  not 
know,  and  I  do  not  believe  that,  as  yet,  most 
Germans  have  any  definite  opinion. 

I  have  now  watched  the  course  of  the  war  for 
ten  months,  living  on  German  soil,  seeing  for 
myself  the  conditions  in  Germany,  and  yet  hav- 
ing the  advantage  of  being  able  to  view  the 
situation  with  the  critical  eye  of  an  outsider. 
During  this  period  I  have  had  free  access  to  all 
the  foreign  newspapers,  American,  English, 
French  and  Italian;  for  not  only  have  such  been 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

sent  to  me  direct,  but  they  have  constantly  been 
for  sale,  and  uncensored,  in  the  streets  of  Mu- 
nich. I  have  witnessed  in  Germany  an  exhibi- 
tion of  strength  for  which  I  was  wholly  un- 
prepared, although  I  thought  that  I  knew  the 
land  well.  That  the  German  nation,  large  as 
it  is,  united  as  it  is,  civilized  and  thoroughly  or- 
ganized as  it  is,  can  be  permanently  relegated  to 
the  position  of  a  second-class  power,  under  the 
dictation  of  some  other  nation  or  group  of  na- 
tions, I  regard  as  wholly  inconceivable. 

Something  else  will  have  to  be  done  with  Ger- 
many. If  the  ancient  privileges  of  some  other 
nation  stand  in  the  way  of  the  natural  and 
wholesome  growth  of  the  German  nation,  such 
ancient  privileges  will  have  to  be  curtailed  and 
some  compromise  arrived  at.  The  Germans  will 
certainly  assert  themselves,  as  we  Americans 
have  been  asserting  ourselves  and  will  assert  our- 
selves in  the  future.  They  will  claim  all  the 
rights  appropriate  to  a  great  and  a  highly  civilized 
nation  that  is  penetrated  with  the  conviction  that 
it  serves  the  world  in  serving  itself. 

We  must  not  forget  that  the  strength  of  Ger- 
177 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

many  is  inherent.  It  is  not  the  after-glow  of  a 
famous  past  that  is  impressing  us.  Germany  is 
not  strong  by  accident  of  position.  She  is  not 
rendered  temporarily  formidable  through  a  mem- 
bership in  a  coalition  of  powers  whose  civiliza- 
tions have  little  in  common,  whose  permanent 
interests  are  divergent,  and  who  can  be  expected 
to  hold  together  only  for  a  limited  period. 

Germany's  strength  is  from  within,  and  such 
strength  is  the  most  indestructible.  Nations  that 
hope  to  compete  with  her  in  the  long  run  must 
possess  or  develop  a  strength  of  somewhat  the 
same  nature.  It  is  as  inevitable  that  Germany 
should  grow  in  power  and  in  influence,  should 
claim  her  rights,  and  should  maintain  her  strict 
independence,  as  it  is  that  the  United  States 
of  America  should  do  the  same.  The  very 
strength  of  both  of  these  nations  seems  to  lay 
them  under  especial  moral  obligations.  In 
that  strength  there  is  a  force  which  will  not 
be  exhausted  in  a  single  struggle  of  any  sort, 
whatever  its  outcome.  It  will  make  itself  felt  in 
the  world  long  after  the  passions  aroused  by  the 
present  struggle  have  subsided. 

178 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

United  Germany  has  become  a  great  and  a 
powerful  nation.  Her  voice  will  be  listened  to 
in  the  future  as  it  has  not  been  listened  to  in 
the  past.  She  has  given  the  world  an  exhibition 
of  what  a  modern  civilized  state  can  do  for  all 
classes  of  its  own  citizens,  and  has  shown  how 
strong  a  state  may  become  through  the  improve- 
ment of  its  own  social  texture.  Education,  dis- 
cipline, organization,  these  elements  in  modern 
civilization  have  had  an  opportunity  to  stand  re- 
vealed in  their  true  significance.  The  exhibi- 
tion has  been  an  impressive  one. 

Of  the  universal  and  deep-seated  devotion  to 
their  state,  which  has  been  revealed  in  all  classes 
of  the  people,  no  foreigner  could  have  had  a  sus- 
picion before  it  was  brought  to  the  surface  in 
this  crisis.  The  German  accepts  the  fact  that  he 
belongs  to  the  state.  With  that  fact  he  cheer- 
fully accepts  the  consequences.  The  state  has 
served  the  people,  and  the  people  serve  the  state. 
The  self-sacrifice  of  the  individual  seems  to  be 
taken  as  a  matter  of  course. 

This  phenomenon  was  not  always  to  be  ob- 
served in  Germany.  National  feeling  was  once 
179 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

at  a  low  ebb,  and  Germany  easily  became  a  prey. 
To-day,  under  changed  conditions,  Germany  is 
strong;  so  strong  that  the  humanitarian  may  feel 
justified  in  reminding  the  German  as  he  must 
remind  the  American,  that  no  man  has  the  right 
to  be  only  a  German  or  an  American,  but  should 
remember  that  he  is  also  a  man.  Whatever  our 
immediate  ends,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  we 
belong  to  the  family  of  the  nations.  We  must 
not  lose  sight  of  broader  aims,  international 
right  and  the  welfare  of  humanity. 

t  Hence  I  venture  to  express  the  earnest  hope 
that  Germany,  while  fulfilling  her  imperative 
duties  towards  her  own  subjects,  will  not  be  in- 
different to  those  broader  duties  which  we  have 
a  right  to  demand  of  civilized  nations — duties 
towards  the  world  at  large.  May  she  join  with 
other  nations  in  striving  to  prevent  the  substitu- 
tion of  one  tyranny  for  another.  May  she  aid  in 
maintaining  the  freedom  of  the  seas. 

It  is  in  the  conviction  that  the  United  States 
and  Germany  have  in  the   future  a  more  im- 
portant part  to  play  in  the  drama  to  be  enacted 
by  the  nations  than  most  Americans  and  Ger- 
180 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

mans  even  now  realize,  that  this  book  has  been 
written.  Both  of  them  are  nations  still  in  their 
prime,  with  their  work  still  before  them.  May 
they  so  come  to  understand  one  another  that  they 
can  work  together  in  harmony  for  the  welfare 
of  the  whole  family  of  nations.  May  they  not 
fall,  through  blindness,  into  useless  and  harmful 
conflict.  The  civilized  world  should  be  one  and 
united.  It  is  now  not  one  and  united.  In  bring- 
ing about  the  union  of  the  future  upon  a  reason- 
able basis,  the  lead  will  have  to  be  taken  by  the 
strong. 


THE  END 


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